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DIAGRAM MAP OF THE WORLD. 

2 




OUTLINES 



OP 



G E N M T : 



A TREATISE ON THE 



PHYSICAL LAWS OE THE EARTH 



AND THE 



CREATION OE THE CONTINENTS, 



FOUNDED UPON RECENT DISCOVERIES. 



J. STANLEY GRIMES. 




BOSTON: 

PHILLIPS, SAMPSON & COMPANY, 

1858, 



.Gr 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1857, by 

J. STANLEY GRIMES, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts. 



ELECTBOTYPED AT THE 
BOSTON STEREOTYPE FOUNDRY. 



PREFACE. 



In submitting this outline of a novel system of geonomy, 
and asking that it may be admitted into the confederation of 
recognized sciences, to occupy, at once, the place of geology 
and physical geography, I am conscious that I render myself 
liable to be charged with egotism ; and if it shall be found, 
upon a proper investigation, that what I deem to be new and 
important discoveries are merely erroneous fancies, I shall 
abandon all defence, and throw myself upon the mercy of 
the public. If, on the contrary, it shall appear that I am 
not mistaken in regard to the essential principles of the new 
form of science which I propose to introduce, I shall hope 
and expect that the faults and eiTors that accompany the 
truths will be looked upon with a lenient eye, and attiibuted 
in a great measure to the numerous disadvantages under 
which the author has labored. 

This little book is designed merely as the forerunner of a 
larger volume, which will be presented to the public hereafter. 
In the mean time, I would respectfully solicit from the friends 
of science the communication of any facts or suorgestiong which 
may be useful in bringing the geonomic system nearer to per- 
fection. A wilderness of details is yet unexplored. Even 
1* , (5) 



6 PREFACE. 

in preparing this meagre outline, I have been painfully sen- 
sible of the want of correct information ; but I am tempted 
to hide my own deficiencies behind the reflection that no 
one individual is at present capable of doing full justice to 
a theme so vast and comprehensive in its general outlines, 
and at the same time so rich and varied in its minor features. 
It is worthy of the united labors of all the scientific minds 
of all countries ; and to them I earnestly commend it. 

The Hon. L. Chandler Ball is the only person whom I 
have consulted during this investigation ; and it is proper that 
I should publicly acknowledge the obligations Avhich I am 
under for his valuable assistance and his friendly criticisms. 
While travelling a short distance with him among the lower 
ridges of the northern part of the Alleghanies, he pointed 
out the necessity of modifying my views in such a way 
as to account for the peculiar and frequent, but gentle, rocky 
undulations that abound among the most ancient stratified for- 
mations. I was thus led to new researches, which resulted 
in the important conclusion, that when the first mountains 
were made, the earth's crust was much thinner and more flex- 
ible, and admitted of being more readily bent into small folds 
than when it became colder and thicker. This enables us 
to understand the reason of the fact that mountains have 
been raised progressively higher, and oceans depressed lower, 
from the earliest to the latest geologic ages. 

I have purposely avoided all scientific questions which are 
connected with theological controversies, and confined myself 
strictly to the subject before me ; but it is proper in this 
place to remark, that geonomy furnishes additional evidence 
that the operations of nature are dependent upon universal 



PREFACE. 7 

laws which, " in the beginning " of time, were made by Him 
who " weighs the mountains in the scales and the hills in 
the balances." 

We have every reason to conclude that, should another 
world precisely like this be now launched into its orbit, under 
the same astronomical circumstances as the earth was, the 
creative laws would reproduce or repeat all the forms of this 
earth, and in exactly the same order, upon the surface of the 
new planet ; but it by no means follows that the divine 
Being has not reserved to himself the power of modifying, or 
even reversing, his laws, to adapt them to special circum- 
stances. It ill becomes short-lived and frail beings like us 
to set bounds to the discretionary power of the supreme 
Ruler of the universe. Let us rather manifest our gratitude 
for the faculties which he has bestowed upon us by using 
them to learn and to obey his laws. 

J. STANLEY GEIMES. 

I4ANSINGBUEGH, N. Y., November, 1857. 



EXPLANATION OF THE DIAGRAM MAP. 



The map fs drawn on Mercator^s prtgection, which, though con- 
venient when we wish to show the whole earth at one view, is not 
strictly correct, because it represents the diameter of the earth from 
east to west as if it were as great at the poles as it is at the equator 5 
whereas, in reality, it grows continually smaller from the equator to 
the poles, as it is represoated on maps with the globular projection. 

Arrows are drawn on the map, following each other along a dotted 
line, so as to represent the normal elliptical currents, circulating 
independently of each other, and covering the surface of the whole 
earth, except a few angular inter-elliptical spaces, the principal of 
which are South America, Africa, Australia, Greenland, Kamschatka, 
Alaska, Mexico, and India. 

The ai-rows on the land are designed to represent the courses of 
the ancient currents of water which circulated over the land before it 
was elevated from the bottom of the sea to its present situation. 
The principal mountain- ranges of the earth are parallel to these 
ellipses, as any one can perceive by comparing a good atlas with 
the diagram. 

The arrows on the water represent, though in a general manner 
only, the courses which the present ocean currents originally and 
normally pursued. I have not attempted, in this diagram, to give 
all the subordinate currents as they now circulate, in gulfs, and bays, 

(8) 



EXPLANATION OF THE DIAGRAM MAP. 9 

and among islands, nor in all places where the partial drainage of 
the continents has caused counter currents to overiBiow from inland 
seas, and disturb the normal directions of the main currents. 

In the North Atlantic, I have represented the course of the Gulf 
Stream as if it were directly north-east from Florida to Spitzbergen ; 
and analogy, as well as the general forms of the land, indicates that 
this was the direction in which it did run before the upheaval of the 
more southern parts of the North American continent. That event 
forced the remaining inland seas to find an outlet to the east through 
ii Davis's Strait, elevated the Grand Banks, and deflected the Gulf 
ij Stream more to the east, across the ocean, to the European side. 
I There the main cmTent of the stream is divided into several abnor- 
mal branches. 

The arrows in the North Atlantic and Baffin's Bay that are not in 
a range ^iih the dotted lines are intended to represent the irregular 
branches, and also the course, of the main current from Newfoundland 
to Europe. 

The arrows represent all currents as nmning westerly in the tropi- 
cal, and easterly in the polar, regions, and north and south between ; 
and any good atlas will show that the mountains curve in accordance 
with the curves of the cmTents. 

The object of this diagram is to illustrate the principle of oceanic 
ellipses and their relations to mountain ranges, and not to instruct in 
the details ; this may be done, hereafter, in a larger' work, with proper 
illustrations. 

If ellipses are to be introduced into geographical science, it will be 
convenient for reference to divide each ellipse into eight segments, 
commencing at the equator, and following the courses of the currents 
as indicated by the arrows. The eight segments would be named 
and numbered as follows : 1. The mid-Hne, or equatorial segment ; 
2. The west raid-Hne segment, bemg that eighth which is between the 
mid-line segment and the western segment ; 3. The western segment; 
4. The west polar segment, being that eighth which is between the 



10 EXPLANATION OP THE DIAGRAM MAP. 

western and the polar segments j 5. The polar segment ; 6. The east 
polar segment ; 7. The eastern segment ; 8. The east mid-line segment. 

If the above arrangement were adopted, it would, in practice, only 
be necessary to refer to the number of the segment in order to be 
miderstood. This plan would be found ver^seful when comparing the 
fects and details of one ellipse with those of another. Thus, in com- 
paring the Asiatic ellipse with the North American, we could say that 
the eighth segment of one is occupied by the Anglo-Americans, and 
of the other by the Chinese. It would also be convenient in describ- 
ing or in referring to a place. Thus we could say that the Aral Sea 
is near the second segment of Asia. 

Two of the ellipses on the map — one in each hemisphere — are 
numbered, to show the manner in which they may all be numbered 
in accordance with the above plan. 



CONTENTS 



SECTION I. 

Smnmary of Principles of Geonomy. — Comparison of the two Series 

of Continents in the Northern Hemisphere 15 

SECTION n. 

Equilibrium of the Earth 38 

Primitive Melted Condition of the Earth. — No Mountains at first. — 

Inequality of the two Hemispheres. — Precession of Equinoxes. . 41 

Symmetry of Ocean Currents 47 

SECTION m. 

Elliptical Paths of the Currents 49 

Effects of the Earth's Rotation 52 

Equatorial Currents west, and Polar Currents east. . . . . . . 54-57 

Gulf Stream 58 

Maury's Current 63 

Overflowing of the Indian Ocean and Baffin's Bay producing Abnor- 
mal Currents 65 

Rising of the Land in the North Atlantic 69 

Elliptic Area of Earthquakes 71 

Relation of Mathematics to Geonomy 71 

SECTION IV. 

Geology 73 

Lyell on the Elevation of Mountains during the Tertiary Period. . . 79 

Relation of Elevation to Organic Progress 83 

Relation of Mountains to Geological Formations 91 

(11) 



I£ CONTENTS. 



SECTION V. 

Parallelism of Currents, Strata, and Mountains . 92 

Mitchell's and Humboldt's Views. — Beaumont on Mouiijains. — Ro- 
gers on "Waves 95 

Professor Traill on Abrupt Slopes 97 

Earthquake at Cutch, in India. — Steam and Explosive Theory. 100, 101 

Fourier on Central Heat 104 

Herschel on Causes of Volcanoes 105 

Thickness of Crust 109 

SECTION VI. 

Lowlands and Plateaus . 109 

Remarkable Earthquakes 115 

SECTION vn. 

Relation of Currents to Geography 121 

Bottom of Atlantic 123 

Asiatic Basin . 127 

European Basin 129 

Caspian and Aral Seas. — Their Surfaces below the Level of the Sea. 
— Analogies of different Lands. — Cape Cod and Gulf of Mexico. — 

Peninsulas 137 

Volcanic Band in the Indian Archipelago 138 

Relative Elevation of the Continents according to Humboldt. — The 

Thermal Equator. — Thermal Tropics 149 

Magnetic Needle and its Variations related to Ocean Currents. . . 149 

Dip of the Needle 151 

SECTION VIII. 

Constituents of the Globe. . , 152 

Water in the Moon, Mars, and Venus. — Action of Metals on Water 

and Atmosphere 158 

Metallic Veins 160 

SECTION IX. 

Comparative Geonomy. — Analogy of the Earth's Oceans and Moun- 
tains to those of the Moon and Mars 161 

Mountains in the Moon. — Causes of their Peculiarities. — Their 
Directions liorth and south 164 

CONCLUSION. 
Facts independent of Theory 167 



OUTLINES OF GE0?s^03IY. 



INTRODUCTION 



Geonomy is a science which relates to the physical 
laws of the earth, and includes all the essential facts of 
geology and physical geography. 

In this treatise those facts are mostly accounted for 
upon the theory that the weight of the atmosphere, the 
ocean, and the stratified deposits, pressing unequally 
upon the granite crust of the earth, causes it to sink une- 
qually, and by reaction produces upward movements 
of the lava and of the land, and gives birth to earth- 
quakes, volcanoes, mountains, and continents. 

The term geonoray is derived from two Greek words, 
— ge, the earth, and nomos. a law, — and is analogous to 
the term astronomy^ which is from astron, a star, and 
nomos. 

Geography literally signifies a description of the 
earth j but it is commonly applied to the surface only. 
2 (IS) 



14 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

Geology signifies a discourse concerning the earth ; it 
is, however, limited by usage to an explanation of the 
structure and origin of rocks and fossils, and cannot 
conveniently be made to include physical geography. 

I have adopted the term geonomy, because there is 
no other word, of equivalent meaning, now in use in 
this country, and because it appears to be perfectly 
appropriate. It implies that we are not only acquainted 
with many facts concerning the structure and natural 
history of the earth, but, also, that we have at length 
arrived at a knowledge of the great principles and 
laws of nature, which, under the same circumstances, 
must always produce similar terrestrial phenomena and 
forms. Nearly all the natural sciences may be regarded 
as subordinate to geonomy, and as each furnishing 
contributions to enable us to understand the compli- 
cated nature of the planet on the surface of which 
we live. 

In order to render the subject more clear and intel- 
ligible, I have introduced a brief preliminary section, 
containing a summary view of the most essential points, 
expressed in concise terms, and arranged in a natural 
order. 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 15 



SECTION I. 

SUMMAEY OF THE PRINCIPLES OF GEONOMY. 

The following is a summary of the distinct principles 
of geonomy, which, when properly applied, enable us to 
solve most of the difficult problems of physical geog- 
raphy and geology. 

1. The effect of centrifugal force is to flatten the 
earth at the poles and enlarge it at the equator, so as 
to make the equatorial diameter about twenty-six miles 
greater than the polar diameter. 

2. The combined effects of centrifugal force and of 
gravitation, are to continually maintain the spheroidal 
form of the earth, and to resist all forces that tend to 
disturb the equilibrium thus established. 

3. As far as we know, the heaviest substances and 
strata are nearest to the centre of the earth, and the 
lightest occupy the circumference ; and all substances 
have a constant tendency to move towards or from the 
centre of the earth, until they reach the places assigned 
them by gravity. The result is, that all substances of 
equal specific gravity tend to occupy equal distances 
from the centre, and to each constitute a special sphe- 
roidal layer or shell around the earth. 

4. If centrifugal force and gravity had been left to 
arrange the substances that compose the earth without 



16 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

the interference of an}' other agent, the surface of the 
earth would have presented a uniform appearance, and 
the atmosphere and ocean would have been of equal 
depth over the surface of all parts of the earth ; there 
would have been do winds, nor waves,- nor currents; 
no mountains nor valle\-s j no vegetable nor animal life ; 
nor any motion whatever, except that produced daily 
by the tidal influences of the sun and moon. 

5. All the phenomena of geology and physical geog- 
rapliy, all the innumerable forms of earth, — mountains, 
valleys, rivers, oceans, — and all the varied manifesta- 
tions of life, beauty, and intelligence upon our planet, 
are directly dependent upon the disturbance which the 
unequal distribution of the sun's rays produces in the 
equilibrium of the atmosphere and the ocean. 



THE ATMOSPHERE. 

6. The atmosphere is the outer layer of the earth's 
subsjances, and being the most volatile, has its balance 
most easily disturbed by heat, and consequently it reacts 
with proportionate facility to recover its balance. 

The heaviest and densest layers of the atmosphere 
occupy the space nearest to the surface of the earth, 
and the lightest layers occupy the spaces which are high- 
est, and are supposed to be about fifty miles above the 
earth.. Between the lowest and highest parts of the 
atmosphere there is a regular gradation of density and 
weight, the air becoming less and less dense from the 
bottom to the top. 

7. Let us assume that the atmosphere is normally 



OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 17 

composed of fifty distinct layers of air, each of whicli 
is of a different degree of density from the other, and 
is one mile in depth. If the lowest layer becomes ex- 
panded by heat, so that its density is only equal to 
that of the tenth layer, the lowest layer will immedi- 
ately rise and mingle with the air of the tenth, and 
allow the second layer to subside to the surface of 
the earth. 

If the expansion of air by heat at the surface of the 
earth was the same in all places, from the equator to 
the poles, the equalizing movement would be merely up- 
ward and downward ; otherwise it would be horizontal, 
and constitute what is commonly called a wind. 

8. The rays of the sun's heat penetrate through 
the atmosphere without expanding it much, but after 
striking the earth, are reflected again into the atmos- 
phere, and cause an expansion of the lowest layers 
only : this expansion is greatest at the equator, and is 
gradually less as we proceed to the poles. 

9. The reason why the direct rays of the sun expand 
the upper layers of the atmosphere less than they do the 
lower is that, from some unknown cause, the direct 
rays of the sun have more penetrating power and less 
heating power than the reflected rays do, and consequent- 
ly the rays pass from the sun directly througli the atmos- 
phere to the earth without being obstructed by the air ; 
but when the rays rebound from the earth, they have 
not penetrating power sufficient to expand any part of 
tlie atmosphere except the lower layers. 

10. The celestial space through which the earth is 
moving is many degrees colder than the earth is even at 

2* 



18 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

the poles ; consequently, however hot or expanded the 
lower layers of the atmosphere may become at the 
equator, they can perfectly recover their density without 
leaving the tropics, by merely rising to the upper regions. 

11. On each side of the equator there is a column 
of hot and expanded air continually rising and swelling 
the atmosphere, so as to make it about four miles higher 
at the equator than at any other part of the earth. 
When the expanded air reaches a sufficient elevation, it 
becomes chilled and condensed, so that it is heaviei: 
than when it left the surface ; of course it immediately 
begins to fall. Being crowded by the rising and over- 
flowing column of air near the equator, it slides down 
an inclined plane, poleward, and reaches the surface 
of the earth at about the thirtieth degree of latitude 
from the equator. Perhaps it would be more correct 
if we should say that near the thirtieth degree tlie 
condensing column from the upper regions of the equa- 
tor is resisted by the dry cold air beyond the tropics, 
and prevented from moving farther poleward in the 
upper regions ; therefore it continues gradually to sink, 
and by its weight presses upon the lower strata, so as to 
cause a movement towards and from the poles at the 
surface of the earth ; just as the pressing of a heavy 
body into the middle of a trough of water causes a 
movement of the water towards both ends of the trough. 

In accordance with this theory is the fact, that the 
wind is constantly blowing towards the equator from 
near the ' thirtieth degree of north and south latitude, 
and on the contrary it is almost continually blowing 
towards the poles beyond the thirtieth degree. 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 19 

It is also in accordance with the fact, that the barom- 
eter indicates that the weight of the atmosphere is 
greater near the thirtieth degree than in any other part 
of the earth. 

THE OCEAN. , 

12. There would be no movements of the ocean in a 
north and south direction, were it not for the unequal 
distribution of the sun's rays on the surface of the 
earth. The tides cause a daily movement of the wa- 
ters east and west ; but with this exception all the cur- 
rents of tlie ocean are caused,^ like the currents of the 
atmosphere, by the disturbance of the equilibrium pro- 
duced by the sun's heat. 

The heat of the sun, all else equal, being greatest at the 
equator, and becoming gradually less to the poles, the 
waters of the ocean are, of course, more expanded at 
the surface the nearer they are to the equator ; and on 
the contrary, they are more chilled and condensed at 
the surface the nearer they are to the poles. The con- 
sequence of this state of things is, that there is a con- 
tinual movement going on, between the tropical and 
polar waters, to restore the equilibrium, which is thus 
continually being disturbed. 

13. Supposing the depth of the water to be equal over 
the surface of the whole earth, and the bed of the ocean 
to be smooth, so that there should be no inequalities 
nor shores to interfere with the natural direction of the 
waters, what course would the currents pursue ? Would 
the condensed polar waters move in a mass towards the 
equator, and the expanded tropical waters move in a 



20 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

mass to meet them near the thirtieth degree of latitude, 
as the winds meet ? Is there any law which would sep- 
arate the poleward currents from those which are mov- 
ing towards the equator, and force each to turn aside, 
avoid an encounter, and choose a separate path for 
itself? It is a law of nature that opposing forces, 
under such circumstances, shall tend to compromise, and 
form a circuit which is generally of an elliptical or oval 
form. The planetary bodies, which were in motion 
long before the ocean waters were, had already set the 
example of obedience to the law of elliptical motion. 

14. Assuming, then, that the current from the pole to 
the equator constituted half of a circuit, and the cur- 
rent from the equator to the pole the other half of it, 
what natural laws are there that would impose upon 
this circuit a definite length, breadth, and form, and 
restrict the number of distinct circuits? The poles 
of the earth are but two central points. Several cur- 
rents, therefore, which go to and from one of the poles 
without crossing each other must necessarily form acute 
angles at the pole ; and furthermore, the currents which 
go from the pole must be continuations of those which 
go to it. 

15. The currents that primitively moved towards the 
equator, instead of converging to a point, as at the pole, 
must have diverged and become widely separated from 
each other. The earth being twenty -four thousand 
miles in circumference, if there were but three equidis- 
tant currents that run to the equator, they must have 
been eight tliousand miles apart when they reached 
there ; and as the distance to the pole is but six thousand. 



OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 21 

miles, the three primitive ellipses of each hemisphere 
had their longer diameters from east to west. 

16. Let us suppose that the first ocean currents were 
thus arranged, and that each hemisphere was divided 
into three elliptical circuits ; what natural laws would 
govern and limit these circuits ? Before answering this, 
let us define an ellipse. 

An ellipse, or ellipsis, differs from a circle in being 
longer than it is wide. The most distant extremities 
of an ellipse are called apsides. The terrestrial ellipses 
at the present time each have one apsis near the equa- 
tor, and the other near the arctic or the antarctic circle. 
The waters of each distinct oceanic basin run in an 
ellipse from the equator along the western part of the 
ocean towards the pole, and from the polar region^ along 
the eastern part of the ocean to the equator. When 
the primitive currents of water moved from the pole 
towards the equator, the rotatory motion of the earth 
must have given them a westward tendency, so that 
they reached the equator at least two thousand miles 
farther to the west than if they had moved in a direct 
line. 

When the water of the current arrived at the equa- 
tor, if it was not yet sufficiently expanded by heat to 
overflow towards the pole, it moved westward along in 
the tropics, until it became sufficiently expanded. Let 
us suppose that it moved along the equator two thousand 
miles before it turned towards the pole ; it would after- 
wards naturally move at least two thousand miles far- 
ther before it would cease to tend towards the west in 
any degree, and by this time it would be nearly one 



22 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

third of its way from the equator to the pole. During 
the remaining two thirds of its journey, the rotation of 
the earth would curve it in an easterly direction. 

17. The causes that move the water in a northern 
and southern direction are obvious enough, and so are 
those that bring the currents together at the poles ; but 
the causes that operate at the equator to send the current 
eight thousand miles in a western direction require to 
be fui-ther considered. First: the rotatory motion of the 
earth gives all currents which are moving towards the 
equator a western tendency, which is greater the nearer 
they approach to the equator. Second: a current which 
embraces one third of the waters of the earth must be 
very broad, and must require considerable room to turn 
in, and but a short segment of it would actually touch 
the equator before it would turn again towards the pole, 
gradually curving, until it moved in an easterly direc- 
tion. Third : It must be evident that the larger the 
body of water which required warming, the longer 
must be the space which it would occupy parallel with 
the equator ; and it must be equally evident that when 
the water near the equator is warmed to a certain de- 
gree, it must turn towards the pole ; and this fact limits 
the size of ellipses, and prevents the equatorial waters 
from moving in a continuous stream around the earth. 
Fourth : the current from the pole must strike the 
equator at a certain point, and after moving a certain 
distance, leave the equator at another more western 
point, in order to return to the pole ; the distance be- 
tween these two points will depend principally upon 
the distance to the pole, the depth of the water, and the 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 23 

difference of temperature between the tropic and the 
pole ; but one thing is demonstrable, and that is, that 
an ellipse of waters can move no farther westerly along 
the equator than is necessary to acquire a certain degree 
of warmth. 

18. If the southern hemisphere was originally divid- 
ed into only three ellipses, as appearances now indicate 
that it was, the reasons given above are sufficient to ac- 
count for the fact ; and if the northern hemisphere con- 
tains evidences of having been divided into six ellipses, 
it will naturally be accounted for by supposing that its 
three original ellipses were each divided, as the continents 
gradually rose and limited the area in which the waters 
moved. 

MOUNTAINS AND CONTINENTS. 

19. It appears that the principal ranges of mountains 
were originally the boundaries and divisions between 
the great oceanic ellipses. In the southern hemisphere, 
from the north and south mountain ranges of Africa to 
the mountains which run north and south in South 
America, there was originally one ellipse, which was 
bounded east and west by those mountains ; and even 
now this may be geonomically considered as one basin. 
From the north and south mountain ranges of South 
America to the north and south mountains of east- 
ern Australia there was another very similar ellipse. 
From the north and south ranges on the western 
coast of Australia to the north and south ranges of 
Africa was a third ellipse. These three great ellipses, 
or basins, now constitute the three great oceans of the 



24 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

southern hemisphere, namely, the South Atlantic, the 
South Pacific, and the Indian Ocean ; and they are sep- 
arated from each other by three analogous elevations of 
land, namely, Africa, South America, and Australia. 
These three elevations originally divided the southern 
hemisphere into three nearly equal parts. 

In the space between the southern shore of Australia 
and the antarctic continent, the forms of the land indi- 
cate that there is a small independent ellipse ; but we 
know nothing concerning the directions of the currents 
there, and this region must therefore be put down as 
doubtful. There are also some evidences of a distinct 
ellipse between New Zealand and Australia ; but as 
both of these last mentioned are doubtful in the pres- 
ent state of our knowledge, and as, if they do exist, they 
are the consequences of a derangement of the primitive 
ellipses, produced by the elevation of so much land above 
the sea, I will leave them out of the account in this 
place, and speak of the southern hemisphere as possess- 
ing only three great oceanic basins. 

In the northern hemisphere the equivalent of the 
Indian Ocean is the continent of Asia ; the equivalent 
of the South Atlantic basin, including a large part of 
Africa, and of South America, is found in Europe, the 
North Atlantic, and North America ; the North and 
South Pacific Oceans balance each other. The north- 
ern hemisphere is in six ellipses, as follows : — 

First. Asia extends from the Aldan Mountains to 
the Oural Mountains, and originally constituted a dis- 
tinct submarine ellipse. 

Second. Europe extends from the Ourals to the 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 25 

Scandinavians, and though small, has the undoubted 
marks of a separate ellipse. 

Third. The North Atlantic constitutes a model and 
well-known ellipse called " the Gulf Stream." 

Fourth. North America was once overflowed by an 
ellipse of the ocean extending from the Appalachians to 
the Rocky Mountains* 

Fifth. There is an imperfect ellipse now in the pro- 
cess of draining, and rising in the north-west part of 
North America, between the Rocky Mountains, the pen- 
insula of Alaska, and the Sandwich Islands. 

Sixth. An oceanic ellipse evidently exists between 
Alaska and China, which I will denominate the north- 
west Pacific ellipse. 

20. A demonstrable parallelism exists between the 
normal currents of the ocean and the principal ranges 
of mountains, which renders it evident that there is a 
necessary connection between the two classes of phe- 
nomena that may rationally be accounted for as 
follows : — 

21. When the earth was first formed, its surface was 
too hot to allow the waters to remain upon it ; but the 
ocean then existed in the form of vapor circulating in 
the atmosphere around the solid earth. Under these cir- 
cumstances, there was nothing to prevent the earth from 
assuming a spheroidal form, without any irregularities 
upon its surface ; it had neither mountains nor valleys, 
and it would have remained in this regular and smooth 
condition, had not the gradual radiation of heat into 
the celestial spaces caused the formation around the 
earth of a shell or crust of cooled lava^- upon the surface 

3 



26 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

of which the condensed vapors fell, to constitute the 
ocean. 

22. As soon as the ocean had covered the earth, and 
the difference of temperature between the equator and 
the poles began to operate, there would immediately 
commence a movement of currents from the poles to the 
equator, and back again, to restore the equilibrium. 

23. The paths pursued by the ocean currents soon 
became heaped with a heavy mass of detritus,. — gravel 
and sediment, — which was precipitated and deposited 
there. 

24. When water runs the most rapidly, it becomes the 
most heavily charged with sediment ; and when it runs 
the most slowly, it drops the particles of sediment the 
most copiously. 

25. There are some substances that are held in solu- 
tion by cold water, but which are immediately precipi- 
tated and deposited at the bottom when the water 
becomes warmed. This is the case with lime, especially 
when the water contains considerable carbonic acid. 

26. When, by the regular operation of the currents, 
a series of strata was formed along the course and 
direction of the current, especially in the young and 
tender condition of the earth's primitive crust, its weight 
caused a subsidence of the crust proportionate to the 
quantity of the sediment accumulated in one place. 

27. It would be impossible for such a subsidence of a 
long ridge of strata to take place without producing a 
corresponding elevation parallel to the line of subsi- 
dence, and also parallel to the course of the current. 

28. When two parallel currents run in opposite 



OUTLINES OF GEOXOMY. 27 

directions so near to each other as to somewhat inter- 
fere and moderate each other's movements, the effect is 
to cause an uncommon precipitation of sediment at the 
points of mutual contact, and consequently at such 
points a subsidence and elevation would be most likely 
to take place, the effect of which would be to place a 
ridge, or line of elevation, between the two currents that 
would prevent their further interference with each 
other. Each current afterwards, instead of impinging 
against another current, would impinge against its own 
shore or side of the elevated ridge, and impress it with 
its own character, curve, and direction. 

29. If the elevation extends north and south, and is 
very long, it has its eastern side concave at the end 
which is towards the pole, and convex at the eastern 
side of the other end. Its western side will be the 
reverse of this ; that is to say, the end which is towards 
the pole will be convex, while that which is towards the 
equator will be concave. The mountains and shores of 
the western part of North America are a good illus- 
tration. 

30. All normal oceanic currents invariably run /rom 
the pole on the western sides of elevations, and all 
normal currents that run towards the pole, take the 
eastern sides ; and this fact, together with the fact that 
the rotatory motion of the earth causes poleward cur- 
rents to curve to the east when nearing the poles, and 
those moving towards the equator to curve to the west, 
is a sufficient explanation of the difference in the curves 
of mountains at their northern and southern extrem- 
ities. 



28 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 



EARTHQUAKES. 



31. When two currents are running, one on each side 
of a ridge, a subsidence will be most likely to take 
place on the side which borders the larger body of 
water ; because that side will be likely to gather and 
deposit the largest and heaviest body of detritus. 

32. When a subsidence takes place on one side of a 
ridge, it produces an elevation on the opposite side, by 
crowding the subjacent lava upward, under the crust of 
the opposite side, and sometimes causing it to gush out 
and overflow towards the side which has subsided. This 
explains the phenomena which are known in geology 
nnder the name of faults. It also explains the fact that 
mountains generally have their crests inclined towards 
their most abrupt slopes, and are, in some instances, 
even folded over. 

33. The side of the ridge which has proved its supe- 
riority of weight by subsiding once, seldom loses the 
advantage thus gained over its opponent. The waters 
on both sides of the ridge retreat from the ridge to an 
extent proportionate to the degree of the elevation, but 
the waters on the side which sinks deepest retire the 
shortest distance ; and under the operation of the same 
causes, another stratified formation of detritus and sed- 
iment is deposited, parallel, or nearly so, with the first, 
which is of the same weight ; but this fails to produce 
a subsidence, for the reason that in the mean time the 
crust of the earth has grown cooler, thicker, and strong- 
er. The subsidence is therefore postponed until suffi- 
cient reenforcements of sediment arrive. At length the 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 29 

shell gives way, and goes down with a force propor- 
tioned to its weight, and raises a corresponding eleva- 
tion, as much higher than the first elevation as the force 
which produced it was greater. A third, a fourth, and 
a fifth formation are afterwards deposited, each of which 
is heavier than its predecessor, and consequently pro- 
duces a deeper subsidence and a greater elevation. The 
highest mountains on tlie earth should by this law be 
the product of the latest general catastrophe, and raised 
parallel to several ranges of minor mountains in the 
interior, whose elevation should be found to be contin- 
ually less, and the dislocations of the crust less violent, 
as we approach the locality of the original subsidence. 

34. The rule that the larger ocean produces the 
greater subsidence holds true not only in reference to 
different mountains when compared with each other, 
but also when applied to different sections of the same 
mountain range. Those parts of a mountain range 
will be found to be the highest which are contiguous to 
the largest mass of waters. 

Those mountains that terminate in deep water are 
generally promontories, and owe their elevations to the 
subsidences which have taken place around them. For 
the same reason the mountains near the poles are not as 
high as those nearer the tropics, because the ocean there 
is necessarily contracted for want of space. In accord- 
ance with these principles it will be found that the 
ocean is generally deepest, and its diameter greatest, op- 
posite the highest mountains. 

35. The heavy metals are probably situated immedi- 
ately beneath the lava or melted granite which is 

3* 



so OUTLINES OF GEOXOMY. 

beneath the earth's crust : and they are more likely to 
be found, not in the highest mountains, but where the 
greatest subsidences and elevations have been made 
at one movement; for the reason that such a movement 
would stir the melted masses which are beneath the 
crust to a greater depth, and, by reaction, send the 
heavier metals up to greater heights and in larger 
quantities. 

36. The first formation of rock upon the earth was 
produced by the cooling and hardening of the lava. 
The lava consists of the lightest known metals and 
metalloids combined with oxygen ; and it is to be pre- 
sumed that the reason why the crust is composed of 
these light metals is, because they were floating upon 
the melted metallic surface of the primitive earth, and 
were thus brought into contact with the atmosphere, so 
as to become oxidized and cooled to form the crust. 

37. The next formation was gneiss, and is composed 
of the worn and broken fragments of granite. During 
the accumulation of this and the following formation, 
the surface of the earth was probably in continual agi- 
tation, in consequence of the strife which was taking 
place between the hot lava below the thin crust and the 
moisture which was condensing from the atmosphere 
above it. This is evident not only from the nature of 
things, but also from the contorted appearance of the 
strata in the rocks themselves. 

38. The next rocky formation is called mica schist, 
and is a species of slate, in which mica abounds, and was 
apparently formed by sediment falling from the water 
among the lighter portions of the gneiss. Above this 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 31 

are clay slates, and sandstoiies of a more fine and regu- 
lar formation, indicating that a more quiet ocean pre- 
vailed. 

39. The next iDiportant circumstance in a geonomic 
point of view, in the progress of the formations, is the 
abundance of red sandstone, which indicates that sub- 
sidences had taken place deep enough to send up a 
large quantity of iron by their reactions, and that 
oxides of the iron had tinged the sandstones with a 
brownish red color. 

40. Above the old red sandstones is deposited an 
immense quantity of limestone, which was probably 
formed in hot and shallow seas, by the precipitation of 
lime from solution in cold water. Cold water, which 
contains considerable carbonic acid, is capable of hold- 
ing a large quantity of lime in solution, the carbonic 
acid being absorbed from the atmosphere, and the lime 
being dissolved from the rocks at the bottom of the sea. 
When this solution was borne by the currents from the 
deep cold waters to the shallower and warmer seas, the 
increase of heat caused a precipitation of the lime to 
the bottom, which, accumulating gradually for indefinite 
ages, produced the limestones of the carboniferous 
formation. 

41. Immediately above these carboniferous lime- 
stones are the beds of coal which now supply fuel to 
man. These were formed in the lowlands of an archi- 
pelago, where, in consequence of the flexible condition 
of the earth's rising crust, there were alternate, and some- 
times, perhaps, annual subsidences and elevations, which 
brought the same area to the surface, and allowed a 



32 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

growth of vegetation upon it, and then sunk it so far 
as to allow a formation of -limestone and detritus to be 
made above the coal. Being again raised to the sur- 
face, a new layer of coal was added. This carboniferous 
formation was brought to an end by a series of general 
and enormous subsidences and elevations, which raised 
still more iron from below the crust, and produced the 
new red sandstone formation. 

42. The next fact to be noticed is, that above the 
coal and lime, in the new red sandstone, is the salifer- 
ous formation ; that is to say, there is evidence of the 
commencement of plains of land containing salt lakes 
or lagoons within their bosoms, from which the fresh 
water gradually evaporated, as the land rose, leaving 
rock salt, gypsum, and magnesian stone, deposited and 
accumulated in the beds where they are now found. 

43. Above the saliferous formation are the lias, the 
oolitic, the cretaceous, the tertiary, the drift, and the 
present alluvial formations, all of which unite in fur- 
nishing satisfactory proofs that, Ist, the present dry 
lands were sometimes elevated gradually and quietly 
without sudden convulsions, in a way which it would 
appear can be most easily explained by supposing that 
the elevation was caused by the gradual subsidence of 
the beds of the surrounding oceans crowding the sub- 
jacent lava up under the rising continents, and pro- 
ducing earthquakes and volcanoes occasionally, in con- 
sequence of local interruptions of the general gradual 
progress downward in one direction, and upward in 
another. 

2d. That the most remarkable convulsions and ele- 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 33 

yations followed, in many instances, after a very long 
period of quiet and gradual accumulations of stratified 
deposits of sediment and detritus. 

3d. That the dislocations of the crust almost inya- 
riably took place in a line parallel with the line in 
which the strata were deposited, and also in a line 
parallel with the course which the ocean's currents 
must naturally have pursued. 

4th. The formations which were the last that were 
deposited in the sea before the present time, namely, the 
tertiary, are found tilted up from their original places 
around the highest mountains, while around the lower 
class of elevations they are seldom disturbed ; thus 
demonstrating that the latest eleyations are the high- 
est, and were caused by the latest subsidences of the 
ocean's bed. 

44. In some cases, it is very likely that local subsi- 
dences and elevations took place in consequence of the 
general disturbance of the crust over a ,large area. A 
local accumulation which would be insufficient to break 
the crust by its weight when the earth was quiet, would 
subside if the earth were shaken in that region. Not 
only so, if a large region were forced upward by the 
pressure of a vast and extensive mass of lava, the 
localities where the crust was thinnest and least loaded 
with strata, would be likely to rise highest, and leave 
the places lower, where the strata were thickest and 
heaviest. The appearances in some mountainous regions 
seem to suggest this explanation. 

It is a demonstrable fact in geology, that the convul- 
sions, as they are called, have been continually less 



34 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

frequent and more violent, from the time of the depo- 
sition of the first and lowest strata ; the hills have also 
become continually higher and the oceans deeper. 

45. When the most modern stratified rocks are found 
but slightly disturbed, and yet much elevated, it is gen- 
erally near the sea shore, and their elevation in such 
cases is owing not to the dislocation of the crust so 
much as to the gradual and general subsidence of the 
neighboring seas, and the equally gradual elevation of 
the whole mass of land which borders upon the ocean. 

It has for a long time been known that there is a 
distinction between earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, 
the sudden elevation of mountain ridges, and the grad- 
ual elevation of continents and peninsulas ; but the 
causes of neither have been understood. Earthquakes 
are caused by subsidences which produce movements of 
lava beneath the crust of the earth. Volcanoes are the 
eruptions of lava through orifices in the crust. Conti- 
nental elevations are caused by the gradual subsidence 
of tlie ocean, producing unobserved reactions upon the 
masses of higher land. 



PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 

46. The mountains of the same hemisphere, that are 
parallel to each other, possess the same relations to the 
ocean currents ; and wherever similar forms of moun- 
tains, islands, peninsulas, plateaus, or lakes are repeated, 
it will be found that they are always the results of 
analogous movements of different currents. 

It will also be found that when the forms of dijQTerent 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 



35 



lands approximate to each other, but are yet, in many 
respects, unlike, the forming currents equally approxi- 
mated and equally varied in their conditions and direc- 
tions when the lands were created. 

47. "When the forms of different lands greatly resem- 
ble each other, but one land is much more diminutive 
than the other, it will be found that the smaller land 
was produced by currents analogous in direction, but 
proportionally as much inferior in size as the land is. 
As illustrations, we may study the analogies of the cur- 
rents and terrestrial forms of the three continents of 
the southern hemisphere — South America, Africa, and 
Australia. We here find similar ocean currents asso- 
ciated with strikingly similar forms of land. 

48. In the northern hemisphere we have a series of 
three ellipses, Asia, Europe, and the North Atlantic, 
repeated in every thing essential by the. next series, 
namel}^, North America, North-west America, and the 
North-west Pacific. 

Let us make two columns, and put opposite each 
other the names of those places that are analogous, 
and, as it were, repetitions of each other in the two 
series of continents. 



Kamschatka, . 

Okotsk Sea, 

Japan, . 

China, 

Siam, . 

Bengal Baj', 

Sumatra and Java, 

Borneo and Celebes, 

Poling and NanUng Mountains, 

India, 



. Greenland. 

Baffin's Bay. 
. Newfoundland. 

United States. 
. Florida. 

Gulf of Mexico. 
. Central America. 

Cuba and Jamaica. 
. Appalachians. 

Mexico, 



36 OUTLINES OP 


GEONOMY. 


Plateau of Thibet, 


. Plateau of California. 


The Oural Mountains, 


The Rocky Mountains. 


The Peninsula of Arabia, . . 


. The Peninsula of California. 


The Persian Gulf, . 


The Gulf of California. 


Europe, 


. North-west America. 


Scandinavia, 


Alaska. 


Iceland Channel, 


. Behring's Strait. 


North-west part of the Atlantic, . 


North-west Pacific. 



If we compare Europe with North America, we find 
that Italy corresponds with Panama. The semicircle 
of the Alps corresponds with the semicircular form of 
the shores around the Mexican Gulf. We must not 
allow ourselves to be deceived by the greater elevation 
of the Alps, for in geonomy the degree of elevation is 
of minor importance, when the analogy of forms and 
their relation to currents are in question. In all the pre- 
ceding instances which have been given of analogous 
forms of land, it will be found that, as far as we know 
or can judge, the direction of the currents was also 
analogous. 

49. There is not a land upon the earth, neither island, 
peninsula, nor continent, the known form of which is 
such as to contradict the geonomic theory here proposed. 

In those instances where counter currents prevail 
from temporary and local causes, the directions of the 
land are found reversed. This is believed to be the 
case with the Massachusetts capes,, that were formed 
under the influence of the cold current from Baffin's 
Bay, which is probably a relic of the ancient North 
American ellipse. 

50. There are a great many ridges of small hills in 
the interior of almost every country, the formation of 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 37 

which can only be understood by considering the condi- 
tion of the earth at the time when they were made ; 
most of them are composed of the earliest deposited 
strati j&ed rocks. They contain evidence of having once 
formed a part of the ocean's bed, at a period when the 
crust of the earth was warm and thin, and easily bent 
by the weight of small masses of detritus and sediment. 
They were, in fact, the first created hills. In most in- 
instances their highest points are unbroken by the pro- 
trusion of lava, for powerful volcanoes had not yet burst 
forth. It is interesting to study these ancient ocean 
beds, and determine by observation the particular val- 
leys or plains, the depressions of which produced the 
particular elevations. 

51. The principles of g-e'onomy, when applied to other 
planetary bodies, indicate the existence of fluids, which 
circulate upon their surfaces in ellipses, the forms and 
sizes of which are modified by astronomic conditions 
peculiar to each ; but the directions and curves of the 
currents can be determined with great accuracy by the 
elevations which they have been instrumental in pro- 
ducing. 

4 



38 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

SECTION II. 

EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 

It is the opinion of many distinguished modern phi- 
losophers that the solid materials which constitute tlie 
earth, were at one time so much expanded by heat that 
they were in a melted and liquid state ; that the whole 
world was but a revolving ball of fluid and liquid sub- 
stances, which occupied much more space than the earth 
does at present. 

It is estimated that the temperature of the space 
through which the planets of our solar system are mov- 
ing, is not less than sixty degrees of Fahrenheit's ther- 
mometer below zero ; and we know that the line of 
perpetual frost at the equator is only fifteen thousand 
feet above the level of the sea. 

It is conjectured by some astronomers that our solar 
system is only a small segment of a vast circle of sys- 
tems revolving around a common centre; and they sug- 
gest it as possible that in one part of the circle, the 
planets are all melted by the intense heat of the space 
through which they are passing, and that in another 
part they are congealed by the intense cold. This, 
however, is mere speculation, concerning a question 
which cannot be settled by observation nor experiment. 
But we have satisfactory evidence that, whatever may 
be the remote causes, the fact is, the surface of the 
earth was formerly in a melted condition, so that each 



EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 39 

substance was at liberty to move to the place assigned 
to it by gravitation. We are also satisfied that the 
surface of the earth has been gradually cooling ; and 
that, consequently, its external substances have been 
condensing. When the surface of the whole earth was 
in a melted state, many of the substances which now 
exist in the condition of fluids or solids must have been 
gases or vapors. The waters which now constitute 
the sea, were then in the atmosphere, mingled with va- 
pors of sulphur, phosphorus, iodine, and many other 
things which are now only found in the natural state as 
solid substances. 

What a splendid subject have we here for the con- 
templation of a chemical philosopher ! It is his prov- 
ince to determine the effects of different degrees of heat 
upon the specilic gravities of the various substances 
which mingled in that chaos of terrestrial elements. 
There were no solids then at the earth's surface. Met- 
als and metalloids were in a liquid state ; all else was 
vaporous. When the condensing process began, what 
substances first fell from the atmosphere upon the 
earth ? Was it a rain of sulphur, phosphorus, iodine, 
and chlorine, in combination with oxygen ; and then a 
rain of acidulated water ; then water more pure ; until 
the whole ocean fell from the atmosphere upon the solid 
surface, and enveloped the earth in a blue and waving 
robe, to protect it from the scorching rays of the sun 
above, and the more powerful heat of the metallic ocean 
below ? 

The astronomical position of the earth, and its re- 
lation to the sun, are such that the tropical regions 



40 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

receive a constant flood of heat, while the poles are 
supplied scantily and alternately ; the consequence must 
have been, in the original formation of the earth's crust, 
that the condensation and precipitation of substances at 
the poles must have been much more copious than in the 
tropics, and dry land would therefore be more likely 
to appear at the poles first, while water would be ac- 
cumulated near the equator. The continents did prob- 
ably all commence rising in the polar regions, and grad- 
ually extend towards the equator. 

The fact is noticed and commented on by all phys- 
ical geographers, that much the larger part of the dry 
land is in the northern hemisphere ; though I am not 
aware that any suggestion has ever been made concern- 
ing the cause of this apparent violation of the laws of 
equilibrium. As the earth revolves, steadily, upon its 
axis, gravitation tends to make the two hemispheres 
equal in every respect ; and tliere can be little doubt 
that the inequality which apparently exists has been 
produced by some cause which acted upon one hemi- 
sphere more powerfully than upon the other. Was it 
the unequal distribution of heat to the two hemi- 
spheres ? Did some apparent accident in the beginning 
elevate a little more land in the north, and thus give it 
an advantage which, from its very nature, would in- 
crease indefinitely? Or, may the predominance of 
northern lands and southern waters be attributed to 
the precession of the equinoxes ? 

Every elementary work on astronomy contains an ex- 
planation of the principles involved in the precession ; 
and it ^is sufficient here to state the result, which is. 



EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 41 

that during a period of about tea thousand years, the 
spring and summer in the northern hemisphere is about 
seven and three fourth days longer than in the south- 
ern, and this is followed by an equal period in which 
the spring and summer in the southern hemisphere is 
the longer. 

At the present time the longer summer and shorter 
winter is in the north, and will continue here about four 
thousand years to come, when it will be transferred to 
the southern hemisphere. Herschel calculated that the 
precession would make no difference in the absolute 
amount of light and heat received, but that it would be 
the same in both hemispheres, the greater proximity' 
of the earth to the sun in perihelion compensating for its 
shorter time ; but Humboldt justly remarks in sub- 
stance that a winter longer by seven and three quarter 
days will occasion a loss of heat by radiation which is 
not fully compensated ; and therefore the greater de- 
gree of cold which is well known to exist in the south- 
ern hemisphere than in the northern, at the present 
time, may be in part, at least, if not wholly, attributed 
to this cause. 

Sir Charles Lyell, in his Principles of Geology, vol. 
i. p. 121, adopts the same view of the subject. He 
says, '' Perhaps no very sensible effect may be produced 
by this source of disturbance ; yet the geologist should 
bear in mind that to a certain extent it operates alter- 
nately on each of the two hemispheres for a period of 
upwards of ten thousand years, dividing unequally the 
times during which the annual supply of solar light and 

heat is received. This cause may sometimes tend to coun- 

4* 



42 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

terbalance inequalities of temperature resulting from 
other far more influential circumstances ; but, on the 
other hand, it must sometimes tend to increase the ex- 
treme of deviation arising from particular combinations 
of causes. But whatever may be at present the inferi- 
ority of heat in the temperate and frigid zones south 
of the line, it is quite evident that the cold would be 
far more intense if there happened, instead of open sea, 
to be tracts of elevated land between the fifty-fifth and 
seventieth parallel ; and, on the other hand, the cold 
v/ould be moderated if there was more land between 
the line and forty-fifth degree of south latitude." 

If we multiply ten thousand years by seven and three 
fourth days, we find that it amounts, in the aggregate, 
to about two hundred and twelve years ; now, it is evi- 
dent that if we could have two hundred and twelve 
years of constant winter in the southern hemisphere, 
and summer in the northern, the currents would, during 
all that time, bring to the north the detritus of lands, 
which the cold tempests and the frosts would naturally 
break up in the south ; and we should expect to see a 
predominance of dry land in the north. Instead of 
having the whole two hundred and twelve years of 
southern winter at once, we have it equally divided be- 
tween ten thousand years, so that each year the south 
receives but about seven and three fourth days of 
colder weather : this makes no difi'erence in the aggre- 
gate effects. It will, doubtless, be suggested by some 
critical readers that, the land gained to one hemispliere 
by the precession during a period of ten thousand years 
must be lost during the following period ; but this does 



EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 43 

not necessarily follow. Before we come to such a con- 
clusion we should consider all the possible effects that 
the precession of the equinoxes might have produced, 
not only upon the movements of the waters, but upon 
the precipitation of substances held in solution by the 
waters, and also upon the cooling of the crust of the 
earth during the earlier ages of creation ; we should 
also consider whether the disturbance of equilibrium 
produced during one period might not, by a change of 
circumstances, have been increased during the next, in- 
stead of being compensated and balanced. Further- 
more, we should consider whether the stage of creation 
at which the earth had arrived in the commencement 
of a particular period may not have been such that a 
slight increase of heat in one hemisphere would produce 
effects which could not be compensated during a large 
number of succeeding cycles. Is it not possible that 
the greater weight and pressure of the more condensed 
atmosphere in the colder southern hemisphere may have 
depressed the earth's crust when it was very young and 
delicate, and thus forced a portion of the subjacent lava 
to escape into the northern hemisphere? 

It is frequently said that continents grow broader 
towards the north pole ; but this is only apparently so. 
The currents of the whole northern hemisphere tend to 
converge to the north pole ; the lands, of course, do 
the same ; and the consequence is, that the arctic circle 
is mostly occupied by land ; but the distance around 
the earth at the arctic circle is so small that it does 
uot require such broad lands to fill the whole space as 
it does nearer the equator. 



44 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

The greatest part of the ocean waters in the north- 
ern hemit^phere move north as far as Iceland or Behring's 
Strait, and south to the north part of South America ; 
half way between these, near the fortieth degree of 
north latitude, the lands are broadest, highest, and 
most productive. Follow the fortieth degree around 
the artificial globe, and we shall pass near the regions 
most celebrated in human history, at the same time that 
we are traversing the most extended dry lands on the 
earth. From this it appears that the lands are broadest 
in the middle of the ellipses. 

In reflecting upon the subject of the predominance 
of the northern lands and the southern waters, the fol- 
lowing hypothetical explanation has occurred to me : — 

It being admitted that the earth has been, during in- 
definite ages, contracting its dimensions in consequence 
of the gradual radiation and loss of its original heat, and 
it being a natural law that, under such circumstances, 
the centrifugal force increases, and causes a greater 
bulging at the equator and a flattening at the poles, — 
if, when the crust of the earth was first hardened, it 
resisted the flattening tendency at the south pole, and 
yielded to it at the north, the effect Avould be to pro- 
duce precisely such a predominance of land in the north 
and of water in the south as actually exists. 

The precession of the equinoxes may have been a 
cause of the more rapid cooling and hardening of one 
pole than the other. 

If, after this inequality was produced, whatever was 
the cause, the ocean currents commenced moving be- 
tween the equator and the poles in both hemispheres 



EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 45 

alike, the result would be, that the northern hemisphere, 
having shallower seas, would have its crust most worn 
and elevated in some places, and depressed by the weight 
of detritus in other places, so that its land would be 
the first to rise above the level of the ocean. That 
part which rose in arctic regions would be broken up 
bv frost, and form detritus to swell the bulk of lands 
between the arctic and the tropics, where we actually 
find the lands most elevated and broad. The lands at 
the south pole, not being so much depressed, would 
form an antarctic continent, and between the antarctic 
circle and the tropic of Capricorn would be the great 
bulk of the ocean, gathered, and, as it were, clinging 
there, upon one side of the earth, to preserve its equi- 
librium. These are curious and complicated questions 
of dynamical geonomy, which I will not pursue farther at 
present, as they are not necessarily connected with my 
main argument, though as subordinate matters they are 
highly interesting. 

The natural laws of equilibrium must necessarily tend 
to make the two hemispheres of the earth equal, and if 
the partial distribution of heat, or refrigeration of the 
earth, produces a tempoi'ary external inequality of the 
hemispheres, there will be a tendency of the fluids, both 
above and below the crust, to move, and ultimately to 
restore the equilibrium. We know that the atmos- 
phere and aqueous fluid do actually more for this pur- 
pose, but we have not hitherto regarded earthquakes as 
the results of movements of the lava to accomplish the 
same object ; I have no doubt, however, that such is the 
fact. 



46 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

As soon as the primitive ocean covered the earth, and 
the polar regions became colder than the tropics, a cir- 
culation of winds and waters commenced to restore the 
equilibrium, which has been continually disturbed by 
the differences of temperature. 

I have no doubt that the actual amount of matter in 
one hemisphere of the globe is continually the same as 
that in the other ; or, if, through any apparent accident, 
one hemisphere should temporarily get the advantage, 
a movement of the air, the water, or the lava immedi- 
ately begins to restore the balance. If, in consequence 
of the more rapid cooling of the southern hemisphere, 
from astronomic causes, there should be, for a series of 
years, a greater amount of precipitation of substances 
from an aeriform or a liquid state to a solid state, it 
might, in the early and nascent condition of the planet, 
produce a greater subsidence of its young and tender 
crust, between the equator and the antarctic circle, 
than what took place in a corresponding region of the 
northern hemisphere during the same period. This 
general subsidence of the whole southern hemisphere 
would, of course, cause a movement of flie subjacent lava 
to the south pole, and across l^e mid-line of the earth, 
into the northern hemisphere ; and thus, though the 
southern seas would be larger and the northern lands 
higher, the relative quantities of matter would be the 
same in each hemisphere. 

The tendency of the two hemispheres to keep in equi- 
librium seems to be indicated by the symmetry which 
is to be observed in the ocean currents of the two oppo- 
site hemispheres. This is especially apparent in the 



EQUILIBRIUM OF THE EARTH. 4T 

Mozambique current being originally antagonized by a 
current of which the Red Sea is a relic. So also the 
normal current that flows to the equator along the 
west coast of Africa, appears to be antagonized by the 
European current that flows along the eastern part of 
the Atlantic, to meet, and, as it w^ere, to balance the 
African current at the western point of South America, 
near Cape St. Roque ; here the two currents separate 
again, like two limbs proceeding from one vertebra, and 
each pursues an analogous course to the opposite poles. 
From the poles again, a little farther west, we find two 
currents moving towards the equator, meeting a little 
at the west of Panama, and moving onward together, 
until the laws of equilibrium require them to part and 
move towards the polar extremities of the earth ; one 
current impinging, as it goes, upon the eastern coast of 
Asia, and the other upon the eastern coast of Australia. 
Looking now a little farther west, we find a current 
in the Indian Ocean, moving along the western coast 
of Australia to the equator, and then turning again 
towards the pole ; a part or branch of it running through 
the Mozambique Channel, the other branch going to the 
east of Madagascar. In the opposite hemisphere, the 
mountains of Asia, are enduring witnesses, that a cur- 
rent once moved on the western side of the Aldan 
Mountains to the tropics, turned west and north-west 
on the northern side of the Himalayas and the Hindoo 
Kosh, and returned north by the east side of the Oural, 
seventeen hundred miles, to the Frozen Sea. In fact, 
we have, in the Asiatic ellipse, the counterpart of 
the Indian Ocean ellipse. I do not wish to be under- 



48 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

stood that the ocean currents in the two hemispheres 
are all now symmetrical, but that it is evident that they 
originally were so when the land was all beneath the 
sea, and even now they are as symmetrical as the ine- 
qualities of the land will permit them to be. 

The idea has been advanced by some theorists, that 
geological phenomena may be explained by supposing 
that the axis of the earth has been changed, so that what 
are now the poles were formerly the tropical regions ; 
and distinguished astronomers have been at the pains 
to show that such could not have been the case ; but 
when the fact is established and admitted that the 
mountains are produced by currents that run between 
the poles and the equator, we need look no farther for 
proof that the poles have remained unchanged. May 
we not hope that in the future progress of discovery, we 
may yet find, in the physical constitution of the earth, 
some marks produced by astronomic cj^cles or changes, 
such as the precession of the equinoxes, and thus con- 
nect astronomical and geological periods. 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OP THE CUEEENTS. 49 

SECTION III. 

ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 

The tendency of the waters of the ocean is to run in 
irregular oval currents, or elliptical circuits. 

The currents appear to be, at present, divided into 
seven great ellipses, as follows : — 

1. The ellipse which circulates in the north-east part 
of the Pacific, a part of which is elevated and drained 
so as to constitute the North-west American ellipse of 
land : let us name this the Vancouver ellipse. 

2. The Siam or North-west Pacific ellipse, which 
washes the shores of China. 

3. The North Atlantic, or Gulf Stream ellipse. 

4. The South Atlantic ellipse. 

5. The Indian Ocean ellipse. 

6. 7. The Chili or South Pacific ellipse, which is prob- 
ably divided into two submarine ellipses of land. Ac- 
cording to Lieutenant Maury, the South Pacific is divid- 
ed into two parts by currents which run in a north and 
south direction, between South America and Australia. 

Judging by the forms of the land, I presume that 
there is a small ellipse which circulates between the 
southern shore of Australia and the antarctic continent. 
This can only be determined with certainty by a future 
survey of this region. 

The analogy of the sea between New Zealand and 
Australia to the South Atlantic leads me to suspect that 
5 



50 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

there is also a small ellipse circulating in the New 
Zealand Sea. 

If these two small ellipses do exist in the vicinity of 
Australia, it is because the lands in that region are 
rising and interfering with the regular operations of 
the large primitive ellipses. 

It seems to me that I can trace an analogy to the 
North and South Atlantic Ocean, on a diminutive scale, 
in the channel that extends from Behring's Strait to the 
antarctic continent, along the eastern coasts of Asia and 
Australia, and I cannot help fancying that continents 
analogous to Europe and Africa are now in the process 
of forming and rising in the North and South Pacific ; 
the South-east Pacific being the representative or rep- 
etition of the Indian Ocean, — the waters between New 
Zealand and Australia repetitions of the South Atlantic, 
— and the waters between Behring's Strait and Siara 
repetitions of the North Atlantic ; but these specula- 
tions must be postponed for the present. 

To the above-mentioned ellipses must be added three 
oceanic ellipses which have been drained, but whose 
mountain ranges show plainly the directions in which 
the currents which created them formerly circulated ; 
ihey are Asia, Europe, and North America ; and perhaps 
we should reckon North-west America as an ellipse, 
about one fourth drained. 

Subordinate ellipses, or circular currents, appear to 
be generated in small land-locked seas, bays, and gulfs, 
by offsets from the great ellipses ; thus, in the Gulf of 
Mexico there is a distinct ellipse, produced by the water 
entering through the Caribbean Sea, and passing out 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 51 

again through the Florida Channel. This sub-ellipse is 
generally considered as the principal instigator of the 
Gulf Stream ; but the waters of the Atlantic would cir- 
culate in an ellipse, just as they do now, if the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea were both entirely closed. 
The circulation in the Gulf of Mexico, instead of being 
a necessary part of the North Atlantic circulation, is 
merely an unessential addition to it. The same may be 
said of the still greater sub-ellipse, which sets from the 
North-east Pacific into Bengal Bay, through the Indian 
Archipelago. The Gulf Stream is here repeated on a 
larger scale, in every respect ;. not only so, the whole 
coast, from India to Alaska, is constituted of repeti- 
tions of peninsulas and gulfs, produced by the current 
entering on one side of an inland sea, and passing 
out on the other side, thus constituting a remarkable 
series of sub-ellipses. I have no doubt that the cause 
of many currents of the deep sea, which have hitherto 
seemed mysterious, will be perfectly plain when the 
bottom of the ocean is well known, and the elliptical 
circulation understood. 

Lieutenant Maury very modestly remarks, "There 
are also about the equator in this ocean (the Pacific) 
some curious currents which I do not understand, and 
as to which observations are not sufficient yet to afi'ord 
a proper explanation or description. There are many 
of them, some of which, at times, run with great force. 
On a voyage from the Society to the Sandwich Islands, 
I encountered one running at the rate of ninety-six 
miles a day." I have a sanguine hope, amounting to a 
confident expectation that when the elliptical theory is 



62 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

applied to those currents, they will be readily under- 
stood, after a more particular survey of them has been 
made by the distinguished head of our National Obser- 
vatory, aided by the numerous ship-masters/ who report 
their observations to him. 



EFFECTS OF THE EARTH's ROTATION. 

We may enumerate six different causes which are 
constantly tending to move the waters, or to modify 
their motions. 

1. The tides cause a flow twice a day towards the 
west, which is each time followed by an ebbing reaction 
eastward. 

2. The earth, as it moves upon its axis from west to 
east, successively presents its different parts to the heat 
and light, and other influences of the sun and moon. 

3. The evaporation of water from one part of the 
earth, which falls in rain or snow in another, and then 
flows back again. 

4. The winds which blow upon the surface of the 
waters and warm or cool them, and also force them to 
move temporarily in the same direction. 

5. The inequalities of temperature between the polar 
and the tropical regions is the principal cause of ocean 
currents. 

6. The rotatory motion of the earth, communicating 
itself to the waters of the ocean, causing currents that 
are moving towards the equator to incline westward, 
and those moving towards either pole to incline east- 
ward. Let me explain this more particularly. As the 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 53 

earth revolves upon its axis, the particles of \7ater, air, 
or any other substances which are near tlie pole, have 
but a short distance to travel to go entirely around the 
earth ; or, if they remain still, and are carried around 
by the rotation of the earth, they have to proceed but 
a short distance before they complete the circuit. 

At a greater distance from the pole the journey 
around it is longer, and at the equator the circumfer- 
ence is twenty-four thousand miles. In other Avords, 
all the substances on the surface of the earth at the 
equator are carried twenty-four thousand miles every 
time that the earth revolves ; and the distance around 
decreases continually as they approach the pole. When 
any substance moves from a part of the earth which is 
farther from the pole to one that is nearer, it carries 
with it a momentum, or tendency to motion, greater 
than it finds among similar substances there, and, of 
course, it moves eastwardly faster than the others do. 
For this reason a current in the ocean that would other- 
wise flow directly poleward from the equator, actually 
curves several degrees eastwardly ; on the other hand, 
currents which otherwise would move from the poles 
directly to the equator, are made to curve westwardly. 

The same fact may be stated thus : When the waters 
of the polar region move in currents towards the equa- 
tor, they are not permitted to proceed due north or 
south, but are made to curve so as to reach the equator 
several deorrees west of the place from whence they set 
out ; on the contrary, a current goino: from the equator 
is not permitted to proceed to the pole in a direct line, 
but the rotation of the earth forces it out of its course, 
5* 



54 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

and causes it to terminate its journey several degrees 
farther to tlie east than the place from whence it started. 
This modifying effect of the earth's rotatory motion 
upon the currents, to and from the tropics, is the key to 
many important facts in geonomy. 

EQUATORIAL CURRENTS. 

Writers on physical geography have much to say 
about " the great equatorial current ; " but it will be per- 
ceived, that what appears to be one current consists of 
the tropical segments of all the elliptical currents. Each 
great oceanic ellipse has one of its extremities, or ap- 
sides, in the tropical and the other in the polar region ; 
any one, therefore, unacquainted with these principles, 
would naturally be led, by mere practical facts, to sup- 
pose that there is one continuous current of water tend- 
ing to make its way along the equator, in a westward 
direction, entirely around the earth. That this is not 
the case, however, we might presume — independently of 
economic considerations — from the geographical ar- 
rangement of the two Americas, which renders such an 
equatorial flow impossible. The only place where the 
w^aters can escape westwardly from the Atlantic or from 
the Polar Sea, is through Behring's Strait, or around 
Cape Horn ; and at both these points the fact is that, 
as far as we know, there is as much water passes to the 
east as to the west, and probably there is more ; thus 
proving: that there is no such tendency to a continuous 
equatorial westward flow as is commonly supposed to 
exist. Depend upon it, if there were any necessity for 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 55 

such a flow, the Isthmus of Panama or of Suez would 
never have existed ; or if they had, they would have long 
since been swept away by the " great equatorial cur- 
rent." If correct notions had been more prevalent con- 
cerning the design or causes of the ocean's movements, 
the idea would never have been entertained of such a 
continuous westward current. The truth seems to be, 
that water flows westwardly along the equator until it 
acquires a certain degree of warmth, and then it turns 
off in an easterly curve, poleward, where it parts with 
its caloric, and returns to the tropics again by a west- 
erly curve ; the two currents together constituting a 
circuit of an elliptical form, the equatorial portion of 
which moves westward, and the polar segment eastward. 
The reason why water flows from the tropics when it 
is heated, is, because heat expands it and causes it to 
occupy more space than when cold. In order to flnd 
more space, that part of it which is nearest the surface 
flows towards the poles, and in doing so passes over the 
surface of the intervening waters. It gradually parts 
with its heat as it proceeds, but is enabled to continue 
its course because it is constantly arriving in colder and 
colder regions, so that its relative superiority of warmth 
is still maintained. While it is in this superficial situa- 
tion, it is continually losing a part of its substance by 
evaporation. That portion which evaporates leaves all 
its salt behind ; the remainder, therefore, becomes ulti- 
mately so much heavier than equal quantities of fresher 
waters of the same tem.perature, it consequently sinks 
below the surface, occupying an intermediate position, 
with the fresher ice water of the poles flowing over it, 



66 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

and the colder and heavier water flowing beneath it 
towards the tropics ; but, it continues its own course 
poleward, freshening, cooling, and sinking, until it 
becomes assimilated to the deep polar waters ; then it 
turns again, gradually warming, and swelling, and ris- 
ing, until it overflows again, under the influence of the 
tropical sun. From this statement it will be perceived 
that water only flows westward and tropicward until it 
becomes sufficiently warmed, and it only flows poleward 
and eastward until it becomes sufficiently cold and 
condensed. 

It will also be apparent that we may with quite as 
much propriety speak of a continuous eastward polar 
flow of waters as of a westward equatorial flow ; for 
there is near the north pole, and also near the south 
pole, a tendency of the waters eastward in each ellipse, 
while near the equator the waters of each ellipse tend 
westward. This will be understood at once from 
an inspection of the diagram map. It will be seen that 
there is really a tendency in the poleward currents, near 
the fortieth degree of latitude in each hemisphere, to 
flow eastward, and also, in currents from the pole, a 
tendency, between the fortieth degree and the equator, to 
flow westward, and that the effect of these two tenden- 
cies is to produce ellipses. 

The whole proceeding might be experimentally illus- 
trated by filling a trough with water, putting in blocks 
of ice at both extremities, and then letting a heated 
stove pipe pass over the water at right angles to the 
long diameter of the trough. As the water in the mid- 
dle of the trough became heated, it would flow towards 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRE^^TS. 57 

the icy extremities, and after becoming cooled, would 
return again. If the water in the trough contained 
considerable sediment, it would be deposited at the bot- 
tom, in the track of the currents ; but the forms which 
the detritus would assume at the bottom would not be 
elliptical, as they are in the ocean, for the reason tliat 
there would not be in the trough any movement to rep- 
resent the eastward and westward currents of the sea ; 
and the detritus would, therefore, be deposited in the same 
straight line, both in moving to and from the centre. 

If, instead of such a trough as I have described, we 
take a very large, circular caldron of water, and put 
ice into an upright cylinder in its centre, to represent 
the north polar region, and then put a hollow rim of 
sheet iron, filled with coals, around the rim of the cal- 
dron, to represent the equator, and if now we make it 
revolve, we shall have a very good representation of the 
northern hemisphere of the earth and its currents. 

Under these circumstances the sediment in the water 
will be deposited in a series of ellipses, with their long 
diameters extending from the warm circumference to 
the cold centre precisely like the directions of the 
ocean currents, and of the mountain ranges. The 
cold water will flow from the polar centre to the 
outer or equatorial edge in a curve, the convexity 
of which will be in the direction in Avhich the cal- 
dron is turning ; but in returning to the polar centre, 
the curve will be convex in the opposite direction. 
Theoretically it may at first seem that the curve to the 
pole should be precisely as the one from it ; and it 
would be so, all else equal ; but it is deflected west- 



58 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. • 

ward, after it begins to move from the tropics, by the 
opposite current, which is continually warming, swell- 
ing, and rising beneath it, and, as it were, crowding it 
over westward, until it has performed half its journey 
to the pole ; then, however, it does move eastwardly, 
until it completes the circuit. 

It should be considered that all lines proceeding 
north from the equator necessarily come together at the 
pole. A current, therefore, which moves to the tropics, 
and then proceeds a given distance westward before 
it returns, will, of course, have made a complete ellipti- 
cal circuit, when it has reached the pole again. 



THE GULF STREAM. 

The Gulf Stream is a name given to a current, or, 
rather, a succession of independent currents, which were 
formerly regarded as one, and were described as follows : 
" Running from the Indian Ocean around Good Hope, 
into the South Atlantic, and following the western coast 
of Africa until it reaches the most western point, it 
crosses the Atlantic to the most eastern point of 
South America, where it becomes divided into two 
branches, one of which runs south along the eastern 
coast of South America to Patagonia ; the other runs 
along the north-east coast of South America, enters the 
Caribbean Sea, and passes through the Gulf of Mexico, 
around which it circulates, and passes out between 
Florida and Cuba, and proceeding along the eastern 
coast of North America as far as Nantucket, it then 
turns eastward, and crosses the Atlantic to the coasts of 
Enr';"!nTid and Norway. '^ 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CUERENTS. 59 

Later discoveries, and especially the valuable re- 
searches of Lieutenant Mauiy, have continually tended 
to tlie conclusion that each ocean has a circulation inde- 
pendent of the others ; that there are, in fact, as many 
Gulf Streams as there are distinct oceans. 

The Gulf of Mexico is the most western part of the 
Atlantic ellipse of waters. When we reflect that the 
waters, in all ellipses, run west in the tropics until they 
become suf&ciently heated, and then turn north-east, 
we can understand why the Gulf of Mexico extends so 
far west ; why the waters there are warmer than in any 
other part of the Atlantic ; and why, when they leave 
there, they move north and east until they reach the 
north of Scandinavia. 

We can also understand why, on the south-eastern 
coast of Asia, the currents and lands are so strictly 
«.^alogous to those of the south-eastern coast of North 
erica ; why the Bay of Bengal is situated, in relation 
to the currents, precisely as the Gulf of Mexico is. In 
studying the Mediterranean and Caspian Seas, we can 
also perceive that they were formerly situated, in rela- 
tion to the western currents, just as the Bengal Bay and 
the Mexican Gulf are now. 

Hereafter the " Gulf Stream " must be confined to 
the North Atlantic Ocean ; and if it receives the excess 
of water that is forced into it from the other oceans, 
the circumstance must not be misinterpreted. The truth 
is, that the Atlantic Ocean would have the same ellipti- 
cal circulation if it were walled up so that no other 
ocean could communicate with it. The probability is, 
that, so far is it from being in any degree dependent 



60 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

upon the Indian Ocean or the South Atlantic, they rather 
tend to derange its normal circulation, and force it to ex- 
tend its operations farther north than it otherwise would. 

The North Atlantic Gulf Stream, or ellipse, is better 
know^n than any other, and may serve as a model or 
type of all the others. Any one who objects to this 
is bound to give some good reason why the w^aters in 
this particular ocean should circulate on different prin- 
ciples, or in a different manner, from other oceans. It 
is commonly said that the Gulf Stream has its head or 
focus in the Gulf of Mexico ; but it may as well be 
said to have its focus in the White Sea. The fact is, 
that it has two foci — one at its second or south-west 
segment, in the Gulf of Mexico, and the other at its 
sixth or north-east segment, in the Frozen Ocean. The 
same is true of all ellipses ; they have their two ex- 
tremes of cold and heat at their second and sixth seg- 
ments, and between these two segments the currents 
continually circulate. 

If we make a tin trough three inches in diameter, and 
arrange it in an elliptical or circular form, the ellipse 
being twelve feet in its long diameter, and if now we fill 
it with water, and put one apsis or extremity of the 
ellipse upon ice, and the other upon fire, we shall see a 
circulation immediately commence between these two 
extremities of the elliptical trough. This is precisely 
the predicament in which the waters of the Atlantic 
are placed, so far as the causes of the circulation are 
concerned ; and this ocean is in no respect different 
from the other oceans ; they enjoy no exemption from 
the operation of the natural laws that force the Atlantic 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 61 

Gulf Stream to circulate elliptically. Each of them 
has its second segment filled with warm water, and its 
sixth with cold. What, then, is to prevent a circula- 
tion from taking place ? 

I have no doubt whatever that the ellipses all run in a 
manner perfectly analogous to the North Atlantic Gulf 
Stream : all the known facts tend to prove this. The 
Indian Ocean ellipse runs south, along the east coast of 
Africa, and then most of it turns east and crosses the 
southern part of the Indian Ocean, and then turns north 
again before reaching Australia, and, passing around 
north-west, and then south-west, through the Arabian 
Sea, again moves south along the east of Africa. That 
an abnormal current runs from the Indian Ocean around 
the Cape of Good Hope is unquestioned ; but it must 
not be confounded with the great normal ellipses which 
move in obedience to the same natural law that pro- 
duces the JVorth Atlantic Gulf Stream. 

It is fortunate for me that the very latest observa- 
tions establish the fact that there is a current moving 
east across the southern part of both the South Atlan- 
tic and the Indian Oceans.* 

Lieutenant Maury is superintendent of the National 
Observatory, and has for a long time been engaged in 
collecting from the reports of ship-masters whatever im- 
portant facts they observed during their voyages. He 
says, "The most unexpected discovery of all is that of 
the warm flow along the west coast of South Africa, 
its junction with the LaguUas current, called, higher up, 
the Mozambique, and then their starting off as one 
stream to the southward. The prevalent opinion used 
6 



62 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

to be tliat the Lagullas cnrrent, which has its genesis in 
the Red Sea, doubled the Cape of Good Hope, and 
then joined the great equatorial current of the Atlantic, 
to feed the Gulf Stream ; but my excellent friend, Lieu- 
tenant Marin Jansen, of the Dutch navy, suggested that 
this was probably not the case. This induced a special | 
investigation, and I found it as he suggested. Captain i 
N. B. Grant, in the admirably well kept log of his voy- j 
age from New York to Australia, found this current | 
remarkably developed. He was astonished at the tem- 
perature of its waters, and did not know how to ac- 
count for such a body of warm water in such a place. 
Being in longitude fourteen degrees east, and latitude 
thirty-nine degrees south, he thus writes in his abstract 
log : — 

" ' That there is a current setting to the eastward i 
across the South Atlantic and Indian Ocean is, I be- ' 
lieve, admitted by all navigators. Tlie prevailing 
westerly winds seem to offer a sufficient ( ? ) reason for i 
the existence of such a current, and the almost constant i 
south-east swell would naturally give it a northerly 
direction.' " , 

The observations of Lieutenant Jansen exactly agree | 
with my views concerning the Lagullas current ; that is ' 
to say, it is merely an overflow of warm water from the | 
Indian Ocean into the South Atlantic, which, after be- ' 
ing thus diverted from its normal course, resumes it ' 
again after it gets into the South Atlantic, and runs to j 
the south and south-east to mingle with the cold waters ! 
of the antarctic regions. 

The current that runs east across the southern part 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 63 

of the South Pacific to connect with what is called the 
Humboldt current on the west coast of South America, 
is commonly considered abnormal, and attributed to the 
winds ; and so, indeed, are all the eastern currents in the 
southern hemisphere ; but the law of rotatory motion 
demands that they should run precisely as Lieutenant 
Maury's latest charts indicate that they do run. That 
the winds add to the vigor of their flow is very likely ; 
but they would still continue to flow in the same direc- 
tion even if the wind blew the other way. Who can 
believe that the Gulf Stream could be made constantly 
to reverse its course by the mere force of the wind, 
when icebergs are annually seen to move hundreds of 
miles against Avinds and tides, and a surface current, 
and only because they are impelled by a powerful deep 
current, which is perfectly protected from the influence 
of the winds ? 

Lieutenant Maury, in his Physical Geography of the 
Sea, p. 166, says, " I have, I believe, discovered the ex- 
istence of a warm current from the intertropical regions 
of the Pacific, midway between the American coast and 
the shore lines of Australia." 

If this discovery is confirmed by future observers, as 
I think it will be, there must also be a deeper and 
colder current a little to the west of Maury's current, 
which runs in the opposite direction. Maury's current 
must be the complement or western half of an ellipse 
of which Humboldt's current is the eastern half. 
Humboldt's current runs from the antarctic coast north- 
east until it strikes the west coast of South America ; 
it proceeds to the equator, and then turns west, and, 



64 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

according to Lieutenant Maury, it does not reach Aus- 
tralia, but turns towards the south when it gets about 
half way there. If this be so, then there must be two 
ellipses between Australia and South America. 

I have explained sufficiently that the natural course 
of the ocean currents is to move in ellipses whose num- 
ber size, and form depend upon the relative temper- 
ature and distance of the equator and the poles. I 
have also explained the effect of the rotatory motion of 
the earth in causing all the normal currents of both 
hemispheres to move in a westward direction when at 
or near the equator, and in an easterly direction when 
approaching either of the poles. I have shown that 
what I denominate the normal currents are simply the 
results of the laws of expansion, condensation, gravita- 
tion, and rotation ; that this is true, not only of their 
rapidity, but of their directions, their distances, and 
their curves, and that the same law of equilibrium 
which produces the Gulf Stream in the North Atlantic 
Ocean produces analogous circuits in every other 
ocean. It follows, from the foregoing, that if we find a 
current actually proceeding in a direction contrary to 
the normal currents, there must be some special and 
extraordinary cause w4iich has operated to^ force the 
waters from their primitive course. Originally there 
was nothing to prevent the currents from moving in 
normal and regular ellipses in all cases ; but when the 
land became elevated in some places, and depressed in 
others, the regularity of the currents was continually 
liable to be interfered with. When Asia, Europe, and 
North America became drained and elevated, the water 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CtlRRENTS. 65 

that formerly constituted the ellipses that circulated 
over them was forced to circulate in the remaining 
ellipses. Where one of the oceanic ellipses is land- 
locked, as the Indian Ocean is, an excess of water 
poured into it causes an overflow, such as that which 
takes place at the Cape of Good Hope, where an ab- 
normal current flows westward into the South Atlantic 
from the Indian Ocean. 

If the Indian Ocean had several channels through 
Asia and Europe, as it formerly had, with which to 
communicate with the Arctic, there would be no " La- 
gullas current " intruding from the Indian Ocean ellipse 
into that of the Atlantic ; but after Asia was elevated, 
the waters of the Arabian Sea had no means of commu- 
nicating with their own natural polar regions in the 
Arctic, and they therefore forced their way south 
through the Mozambique Channel, with great rapidity, 
and, passing around Good Hope, entered the Atlantic, 
and flowed north along the western coast of Africa, in 
company with the normal South Atlantic current, from 
the Antarctic Seas. The probability is, that what is 
called " the Lagullas Bank," which is supposed to 
deflect the Mozambique current to the west, was cre- 
ated originally by the normal current that proceeded 
easterly from Good Hope, and that this bank was 
modified by the Lagullas current when the northern 
channels to the Arctic were obstructed, and the Ara- 
bian waters forced through the Mozambique Channel. 

To illustrate : Suppose that the bed of the North At- 
lantic should become elevated as far to the south as the 
thirtieth degree of north latitude, so that railroads could 
6* 



66 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

be built along the northern shore, from Spain to Florida, 
via Bermuda ; would there not be an enormous overflow 
of heated waters to the south, which would manifest 
itself in producing a powerful current west around Cape 
Horn, analogous to the present Lagullas current, which 
flows west around Good Hope ? 

It appears that there is annually an excess of water 
forced into the North Atlantic, in consequence of the 
peculiar land-locked condition of the Indian Ocean. 
Besides this, the shores of the Atlantic are continually 
extending, and contracting the bounds of the ocean ; 
the consequence is, that a large quantity of water is : 
forced from the southern hemisphere, across the mid- 
line, into ihe Gulf of Mexico, and from thence into the j 
Arctic Ocean, as far as Spitzbergen and Nova Zembla. j 

I have no idea that the Gulf Stream would extend i 
so far north, were it not for the overflow of the Indian { 
Ocean and thei narrowness of the Atlantic. We have 
a proof of tills in the fact that the North Pacific does 
not extend beyond Behring's Strait. Why should the 
Atlantic Ocean extend its normal circulation farther 
north than the Pacific, unless for the reasons here given ? 
It is further to be observed, that the ancient North 
American ellipse is nearly extinct, and that Hudson's 
Sea and Baffin's Bay are its relics. These vast seas 
receive warm waters from the Atlantic, and perhaps 
some through Behring's Strait ; and in return they pour 
a cold current into the Atlantic, to chill the Gulf 
Stream, and deflect it east from the Banks of Newfound- 
land and the New England coast. Being thus forced , 
to move more easterly than it otherwise would, the 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 67 

i -warm Gulf Stream crosses to the other side of the 
I Atlantic, and there separates into several sub-currents, 
'or branches ; — one moves along the coast of Norway 
I to North Cape ; it then turns south, touching Spitzber- 
i gen, and passes between Greenland and Iceland. An- 
{ other branch (supposed by some to be the same) moves 
i from the North Atlantic, by the western coast of Green- 
! land, to the head of Baffin's Bay, then crosses over to 
i the north-eastern coast of America, and returns to the 
■Atlantic, where a branch of it crowds itself between 
I the Labrador and New England shores and the Gulf 
I Stream, and manifests its power by forming several 
I bays, with their mouths towards the north-east, while 
those on the same line of coast, which are formed by the 
Gulf Stream, have their mouths towards the south- 
east. 

The Banks of Newfoundland must be regarded as the 

i product of the Gulf Stream on one side, and the Baffin's 

I Bay current on the other. It appears that a subsidence 

has taken place in the bed of the Gulf Stream, just south 

of the bank ; for on that side it is very steep, and on 

the north side the slope is gentle. 

A process analogous to this is going on in the North 
Pacific, where the warm stream from the south contends 
with the cold waters of Behring's Sea, and between 
them the Aleutian chain of volcanic islands is rising. 
Kamschatka and the Kurile chain are formed in the 
same way by the opposition of the cold stream from the 
Okotsk Sea to the warm stream from the south. The 
same is true of the Japan Sea and the island chain at 
the east of it. These islands in the Pacific are eminent- 



OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 



ly volcanic, and in this respect they dififer from New- 
foundland at present ; but I will venture the prediction 
that volcanoes will yet rise and illuminate the ocean |i 
not far from the line marked out for the transatlantic 
telegraph, and the whole north-western coast of Eu- 
rope, Portugal, Britain, Scandinavia, and Iceland will f 
be racked with convulsions which will leave them much '^ 
higher, and their centres farther from their shores, than | 
they are at the present time. fi 

The northern ocean once flowed from the mountains f 
of China to those of California, enclosed by a chain of |i! 
low islands or submarine mountains, which extended ' 
from Behring's Strait south-westward to India, then \» 
west to Mexico, and then north-west to Behring's Strait ^ 
again, constituting one vast compound ellipse, which is 'i 
now subdivided into Asia, Europe, the North Atlantic, 
and North America. Formerly all parts of the north- j 
ern tropical region were in direct communication with f 
the Arctic Ocean, the intermediate land being merely t 
groups of islands ; but gradually the Arctic has become f! 
a solitary and frozen inland sea, and the tropical waters f 
are excluded except through the long, deep, and narrow 
channel of the Atlantic. As for Behring's Strait, it is 
only about twenty miles wide, and has a bar at its 
entrance, which indicates that it is becoming entirely j' 
closed. Not only so, the detritus that was wont to pass 
through it is now gathering near by, in the Pacific i 
Ocean, and by its weight raising the semicircular chain f 
of the Aleutian volcanic islands, to more effectually sep- f 
arate the Arctic from the Pacific and the tropics. The i^ 
north part of the Atlantic is now little more than a ' 



I' 

i 

k ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 69 

I channel of communication between the Arctic and the 

ij other oceans. This channel has been becoming narrow- 

1 er for many geologic ages, and will finally be entirely 

I closed. To be convinced of this, we have only to study 

.| the positions, and what can be learned of the history of 

I the volcanic islands and shores which are continually 

encroaching upon it in the Iceland Sea. Norway and 

Sweden are constantly rising, especially in the northern 

] parts. The Faroe Islands, between Britain and Iceland, 

I abound in volcanoes, which continue to increase and 

! rise, causing the dry lands to expand and blaze, as if in 

' defiance of the deathly cold and the terrible tempests 

: which desolate the coasts. Iceland itself is remarkable 

for being the scene of the most copious discharge of 

lava of which we have any record. 

The Mediterranean Sea is growing deeper and nar- 
rower. The detritus of its inlets is causing its bed to 
sink, and its volcanic shores and islands to rise, while a 
bar is gathering at its Gibraltar mouth — a premonitory 
symptom of its final fate, which is, to be, like the Cas- 
pian, excluded from all communication with the great 
oceans, and left to evaporate down to a deep salt lake. 
The Western Islands, in the Atlantic, seem to bear 
the same relation to the Straits of Gibraltar that the 
Aleutians do to Behring's Strait. It appears to be a 
general law that volcanic islands have a tendency to 
rise in the ocean opposite the mouths of inland seas 
that were once a part of the ocean. It may be that 
the checkino; of the current that flows from the ocean 
inland, causes the gathering of detritus in the ocean's 
bed, nearly opposite the strait of the sea from which it 



70 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

is now excluded. Does not tliis explanation apply to 
the volcanoes of the Iceland Sea the Kurile chain, 
and the Isthmuses of Panama, Suez, and the submarine 
isthmus of which Java is a part ? 

It is plain, upon reading Lieutenant Maury's book, 
that he clearly perceived the laws of the ocean currents, 
so far as they relate to the North Atlantic ; and if he ' 
does not apply the same rules to the other oceans, | 
neither does he advance any thing in opposition to the | 
views which I am presenting. He says, " We may | 
assume it as a law, that the natural tendency of all ; 
currents in the sea, like the tendency of all projectiles • 
through the air, is to describe their curves of flight 
in the planes of great circles." 

" It appears that the course of the Gulf Stream is ( 
fixed and prescribed by exactly the same laws that i 
require the planets to revolve in orbits, the planes of - 
which shall pass through the centre of the sun, and i^ 
that were the Nantucket Shoals not in existence, it ' 
could not pursue a more direct route." 

Precisely so ; and the courses of all ocean streams ^ 
are subject to the same fixed laws that the Gulf Stream r 
is ; and were the land all on a level with the bottom of [ 
the ocean, the normal ocean currents would move in 
ellipses as they do now, but there would be only three f 
ellipses in each hemisphere. " ' \ 

Mr. Keith Johnson, of Edinburgh, in his beautiful 
work on Physical Geography, has a map on which he f 
represents the area disturbed by the great earthquake !■ 
which destroyed Lisbon ; and it is remarkable that the 
lines which he has drawn almost exactly coincide with ^ 



ELLIPTICAL PATHS OF THE CURRENTS. 71 

those which I have made to represent the North Atlantic 
ellipse. In other words, the earthquake was produced 
by a depression of tlie whole area included in the North 
Atlantic ellipse, or Gulf Stream. Another earthquake 
is represented on the same map as having also dis- 
turbed an area of an elliptical form, but it did not 
extend more than half as far north. It appears to me 
that this map, in connection with the geonomic theory, 
amounts almost to a demonstration that those earth- 
quakes were produced by the special depression of this 
particular ellipse. I have no doubt that if a careful 
system of soundings had been made before the earth- 
quake, and another afterwards, the places could have 
been ascertained with precision where the greatest de- 
pressions and elevations or eruptions had taken place ; 
and though the idea may excite a smile, a method like 
this may yet be contrived of gauging tlie loss of lava 
from the internal and the gain upon the external parts 
of the earth. 

Mathematics alone can never originate a new sci* 
ence ; but neither can any natural science be much 
advanced nntil brought within the jurisdiction of 
weights and measures. Mathematics presides in the 
supreme court, of the sciences, and holds the scales of 
equity with an impartial hand. It does not conde- 
scend to collect and arrange facts nor to frame hypothe- 
ses ; but when they are produced, it sits in judgment and 
decides upon their merits in accordance with eternal 
laws and with inexorable justice. 

Geonomy is of such a nature as to be especially liable 
to be brought to this severe test ; it cannot escape from 



72 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

the scrutiny of a tribunal from which there can be no 
appeal. Geonomy is a question of quantity. It relates 
to the rising and falling of the external parts of the 
earth and of the other planets, by an unvarying rule • 
and it is absolutely true, or its falsity can be demon- 
strated by circles and ellipses, angles and numerical 
figures, whose very essence is truth. 



GEOLOGY. 73 



SECTION lY. 

SUCCESSION OF GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS AND THEIR 
RELATION TO MOUNTAIN RANGES. 

There are few geologists, if any, wlio do not now 
admit that granite forms the foundation of the earth's 
crust, and that below it is a fluid mass of lava, the 
inovements of whioh occasionally elevate the crust ; 
I hough no one has given a satisfactory explanation of 
the causes that produce and direct the elevating move- 
ments. 

Granite,* or consolidated lava, is not only at the 
foundation of all the rocky formations, so as to consti- 
tute the true crust of the earth, but it is frequently 
poured forth by volcanoes, so as to occupy situations 
above some of the stratified rocks, in such a way as to 
leave us in doubt whether the granite rocks, in a par- 
ticular place, are a part of the original crust, or the 
product of comparatively modern volcanoes. 

All the rocks above granite were deposited from 
water in strata, and are therefore called stratified. The 
rock which is generally found immediately above gran- 
ite is called gneiss^ and is composed of fragments of 
granite, broken and worn by attrition against each 

* " That there is a basis of crystallized granite rocks beneath all the stra- 
ta, in all countries, cutting off and limiting our obser^-ations, and hiding 
whatever -wonders are concealed below, is now universally admitted." — 
Philips. 

7 



74 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

other and against the surface of the earth, by the move- 
ments of the primitive ocean. 

Gneiss is peculiar in several respects. 1. It contains 
no large blocks of granite, and but few other volcanic 
products ; thus indicating that volcanoes had not com- 
menced their labors at that early age of the world. 
2. It contains in its composition less of the heavier me- 
tallic substances than the higher formations do ; though 
it is frequently pierced by veins of metal which have 
passed through it on their way upward. 3. It contains 
no evidence of the existence of organic beings. In 
this last respect it agrees with several formations im- 
mediately above it. The reasonable conclusion from 
these facts is, that neither volcanoes, mountains, nor 
organized beings of any kind had been instituted at the 
time that this lowest stratified rock was formed. Gneiss, 
originally, was laid upon a granite floor at the bottom 
of an ocean which had no bounds, and above whose sur- 
face not a single island had yet reared its crest. 

The waters were probably nowhere less than half a 
mile in depth, and were of nearly a uniform tempera- 
ture from the equator to the poles. 

The next higher formation was that which is princi- 
pally composed of mica schist — a species of coarse, con- 
torted slate-like rock, in which mica predominates. It 
appears to be constituted of some of the same elements 
as gneiss, but formed under different circumstances. 
It is probably the result of the attrition of granite 
and gneiss, which took place while the waters of the 
ocean were hot, and perhaps boiling ; for it is com- 
posed of laminae or thin layers of mica, mingled with 



i 



GEOLOGY. '75 

pebbles and sediment, and bent into short, irregular 
curves, in a way that indicates a violent agitation of 
the waters in which it was deposited. In the lower 
portions of this formation there is evidence of some 
slight volcanic action ; for small masses are frequent 
which contain iron and other metals, so heavy that they 
must have come from below the crust. In the higher 
parts of the formation heavy metals become more and 
more abundant, and there are also found other evidences 
of vigorous convulsions. 

Above the mica schist are more regularly formed 
slates and sandstones, which seem to be produced by a 
greater degree of attrition and subdivision of particles, 
worn or dissolved from the lower rocks, and after being 
deposited, were subjected to the pressure of the super- 
incumbent ocean. Most of these slates and sandstones 
are blue, or brown, but a very few of them are red, 
indicating the presence of a small quantity of iron. 

After the land had been raised to a sufficient height, 
and the agitation of the ocean and the atmosphere 
had produced the requisite combinations, vegetable 
and animal life appeared in their lowest and simplest 
possible forms. This was the commencement of what 
is called the protozoic or first animal formations. 
Geologists, at the present day, admit that the best, if 
not the only guide which they possess to the relative 
ages of the stratified rocks, is the character of the or- 
ganic remains which they severally contain. It is 
found that the organisms, both vegetable and animal, 
are progressively superior and more complicated, from 
the lower to the higher stratified formations. 



76' OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

The next higher formation is the old red sandstone 
system of rocks, wliich is very extensive, and demon- 
strates that, between the deposition of the gneiss and 
the commencement of the old red, there must have been 
a large quantity of iron ejected from beneath the granite. 

Next above the old red sandstone is the carboniferous 
formation ; so called on account of the immense quan- 
tity of carbonic rocks which it contains, especially the 
carbonates of lime, which were deposited from water in 
a way which is yet undetermined. 

In the midst of these rocks are the coal measures, con- 
sisting of the immense beds of coal which now furnish 
fuel to mankind. The limestone formations differ in 
several important respects from any which had preceded 
them. Instead of being constituted of the detritus 
worn from other previously formed rocks, they are com- 
posed of lime which had probably been dissolved in 
water that contained carbonic acid. It is well known 
that hot water is capable of holding a much smaller 
quantity of lime in solution than cold water can. When, 
therefore, during the upward progress of the land, the 
waters became warmer in some places than others, the 
lime was precipitated to the bottom in some localities, 
and formed the carboniferous limestone. It is found in 
the largest quantities around the bases of the older 
mountains ; owing perliaps to the fact that those elevat- 
ed places were generally warmer than those in deeper 
situations, and their higher temperature caused the es- 
cape of a part of tlie carbonic acid, and a precipitation 
of lime to take place against their sides. It is believed 
that the most extensive connected formations on the 



GEOLOGY. 77 

present dry land are those of the mountain limestones. 
The coal measures were produced by the combinations 
and condensations from the atmosphere and water of 
hydrogen and carbonic acid in the form of vegetable 
productions. This vegetable coal formation took place 
soon after groups of islands had risen above the surface 
of the sea.* At that time carbonic acid was much 
more abundant, both in the atmosphere and the ocean, 
than it is now. The process which produced the car- 
boniferous rocks purified the water of an immense quan- 
tity of lime, magnesia, sulphur, chlorine, and silex, which 
it previously held in solution. It also purified the air 
of a vast amount of carbonic acid. It was not until 
after this period commenced that any land animals ex- 
isted to breathe the air ; nor was it until after this pe- 
riod closed that animals were created that were above 
the race of low, crawling reptiles. 

The next higher mass of rocks is called the permian 
system, or lower division of what is sometimes called 
the new red sandstone formation.! The carboniferous pe- 
riod was followed and closed by important elevations of 

* A wide expanse of ocean, interspersed with, islands, seems to have per- 
vaded the northern hemisphere at the periods when the transition and car- 
boniferous rocks were formed, and the temperature was then hottest and 
most uniform. Subsequent modifications of climate accompanied the depo- 
sition of the secondary formations, when repeated changes were effected in 
the physical geography of our northern latitudes. Lastly, the refrigera- 
tion became most decided, and the climate most nearly assimilated to that 
now enjoyed, when the lands in Europe and Northern Asia had attained 
their full extension, and the mountain chains their actual height. — Lyell. 

f The prevalent red color of the saliferous system is of itself a circum- 
stance of great interest, but of unknown origin. — Philips. 

7^ 



78 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

the land, and the formation of a series of rocks which 
indicated once more the intimate connection between 
the red oxide of iron, the volcanic eruptions, the moun- 
tain elevations, and the progress of organisms. As the 
dry land increased, the geological formations partook 
more and more of a fresh water character, and abound- 
ed more in remains of land plants. 

The permian system is mostly constituted of red sand- 
stones, which are composed of materials torn from the 
bed of the ocean, alternating with magnesian limestones 
precipitated from solution in water in a way which has 
not been clearly explained by geological chemists, but 
probably the temperature had much to do with it. 

Next higher is the saliferous triasic, or higher new 
red sandstone formation, which is mostly distinguished 
by its containing a large quantity of common salt, and 
also plaster Paris and magnesia. This indicates that 
extensive lakes had been elevated above the level of the 
sea, something as the salt lake of Utah is now, and that 
the waters had been forced by evaporation to give up 
their solutions to the earth again from whence they had 
been previously derived. 

Above the saliferous is the oolitic formation, so called 
on account of the egg-shaped stones which it contains. 
It is a more variously compounded rock than any of the 
preceding ; its elements combining in a greater degree 
the characters of land and sea, and showing that it was 
formed near the shores of the ancient island continents. 
Being derived mostly from the dry land, it has much 
less of the oxide of iron diffused through it than the 
formations immediately below it have. There are sev- 



1 



GEOLOGY. 79 

eral subdivisions of the oolitic rocks, the lowest of 
which is called the lias formation. Next higher is the 
cretaceous, or chalk formation, which is still more de- 
cidedly marked by circumstances that indicate an inti- 
mate relation to the dry land in the vicinity. 

Following the chalk comes the tertiary formation, 
which Mr. Lyell divides into the eocene, miocene, and pli- 
ocene, and then subdivides each of these. It is remarka- 
ble for containing the remains of a great number of land 
animals analogous to those now existing. The investi- 
gations and subdivisions that have been made of this 
system by the labors of Lyell and others all confirm the 
fact that the animal remains, from the lowest part of the 
formation to the highest, indicate a gradually improving 
condition of the earth, fitting it for the habitation of 
animals that generate warmth within their own bodies 
by respiration, «o as to be less dependent upon the 
warmth imparted by the external atmosphere. The 
genQYoX forrns of the great continents existed then as. 
now, with this difference, that more than one half of the 
present dry land, including nearly all the present low- 
lands, was then beneath the sea.* 

Mr. Lyell makes the following remarks concerning 
the relation of the tertiary to physical geography : — 

" About two thirds of the present European lands 
have emerged since the earliest of these tertiary groups 
originated." 

"Brocci inferred that the Apennines were elevated 
several thousand feet above the level of the Mediterra- 

* " Yarious parts of the British Islands were dry land, while most of the 
continent of Europe was yet below the ancient ocean." — Somerville. 



80 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

nean before the deposition of the recent sub-Apennine 
beds which flank them on either side.'' 

The central and higher ridges of the Alps are, ac- 
cording to Mr. Lyell, " encircled bj a great zone of ter- 
tiary rocks of different ages, both on their southern 
flank towards the plains of the Po, and on the side of 
Switzerland and Austria, and at their ea&tern termina- 
tions towards Stjria and Hungary. This tertiary zone 
marks the position of former seas or gulfs, like the 
Adriatic, which were many thousand feet deep. These 
marine tertiary strata have been raised to the height of 
from two thousand to four thousand feet. The older 
tertiary groups generally rise to the greatest heights^ 
and form interior zones neare&t to the central ridges of 
the Alps.'' 

" The Pyrenees, also, have acquired their present alti- 
tude, which in Mount Perdu exceeds eleven thousand 
feet, since the deposition of some of the newer members 
of our secondary series.'' 

*' The Jura owes a great part of its present elevation 
to subterranean convulsions which happened after the 
deposition of certain tertiary groups." 

" The former connection of the White Sea and the 
Gulf of Finland is proved by the fact that a broad band 
of tertiary strata extends throughout part of the inter- 
vening space." 

" I believe that since the commencement of the ter- 
tiary period, the dry land in the northern hemisphere 
has been continually on the increase. The Alps have 
acquired an altitude of from two thousand to four thou- 
sand feet, and even in some places still more ; and the 



GEOLOGY. 81 

Apennines owe considerable part of their height (from 
one thousand to two thousand feet) to subterranean 
convulsions which have happened within the tertiary 
epoch." 

" The great lowland of Siberia, lying chiefly between 
the latitudes fifty-five and seventy-five degrees north, 
(an area nearly equal to all Europe,) is covered for the 
most part by marine strata, Avhich, from the account 
given by Pallas and other writers, may be considered 
as of tertiary formation." 

Between the present period and the tertiary was de- 
posited the drift formation. No geological period has 
been the subject of so much learned discussion as that 
which is known as the glacial or drift period. The fact 
seems to be, that near the close of the tertiary period, 
and just before the commencement of the modern allu- 
vial formations, some cause hitherto unexplained began 
to operate to convey large quantities of gravel, and 
also large rocks, called bowlders^ from the north and 
north-west to the south and south-east, and scatter them 
over the surface of so much of the earth, in most of the 
temperate regions, as was covered by the sea. These 
gravelly and rocky deposits from water differ from all 
others in not being stratified, and in not generally con- 
taining organic remains which belong in the climate 
where the drift is found. They were not deposited in 
sediment quietly, as most of the stratified rocks were, 
but were evidently borne violently along in mass by 
some powerful force. 

It is now generally believed that water and ice were 
both agents in producing the drift ; but no satisfactory 



82 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

explanation has yet been made concerning tbe causes 
which set the water and ice in motion. Perhaps the 
most plausible suggestion is that when the polar regions 
became cold enough to produce icebergs, the Arctic 
Ocean was an extensive archipelago, and the northern 
temperate regions were mostly covered by the sea ; this 
being the case, each season would send a large crop of 
icebergs loaded with bowlders southward, drifted by 
the ocean currents. This process doubtless continued 
until the continents were so far elevated that the drift 
could not pass over them ; but even now a similar pro- 
cess is taking place in the Atlantic, and bowlders and 
drift are being scattered over the banks of Newfound- 
land which will ultimately be raised and exhibit appear- 
ances similar to those presented by the fields of New 
England and of Northern Europe* 

The subdivisions and classifications made by the sys^ 
tematic geologists are at present very unsatisfactory, and 
indicate the want of more knowledge concerning the 
causes which produced geological phenomena. I can- 
not help expressing the hope that the principles here 
announced will be instrumental in giving a new impulse 
to this noble science, by furnishing new means of in- 
vestigation, and indicating a rational mode of explain- 
ing many things which have appeared mysterious. 

Organic Progress. 

It has been a prevailing opinion that the progress of 
organized beings in structure and intelligence has been 
accompanied by a simultaneous progress of the whole 



GEOLOGY, 83 

earth to a cooler and more modern condition — that, in 
fact, the organic progress is evidence of terrestrial 
progress. But when we reflect that three hundred feet 
of elevation has an effect upon climate equal to a re- 
moval one degree towards the pole, — when, in addition 
to this, we ascertain that the geological formations, 
which have been examined, were, in most cases, sub- 
jected to the elevating process from the time of the 
lowest depositions to the highest, — we shall perceive 
that the. advance in the organic character of the re- 
mains found in the formations is not of itself a proof 
of the progress of the whole earth towards a more 
perfect state, but only of a local advance to a cooler 
region and a higher and rarer atmosphere. 

That the whole earth has gradually progressed from 
a liquid state, and become gradually condensed and 
cooled to its present condition, there are good reasons 
for believing ; but had it not been for the inequalities 
which have been produced by the depression of some 
parts and the elevation of others, it is certain that the 
ocean would now cover the whole earth : none but 
aquatic animals and plants would exist, 'and only the 
lower species even of these. The ocean, being of an 
equal depth, would be of nearly an equal temperature 
in all its parts. The heat of the tropics and the cold of 
the poles would so modify each other that it is question- 
able whether any ice would be found out of the polar 
circles. 

Assuming that the surface of the earth was at one 
time too warm to admit of organic existence, as geol- 
ogy appears to demonstrate that it was, it must be ob- 



84 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

vious that the elevation of some parts of the ocean's 
bed would enable those parts to sooner become the 
nurseries of organic form's, while the lower parts 
would still remain uninhabited. If, afterwards, the 
same parts were raised again to a still higher level, 
they would be rendered capable of sustaining a higher 
class of beings. If, many ages after thus being re- 
peatedly elevated and peopled with a succession of 
adapted organisms, this spot should be examined by 
some geologist, he might infer that the whole earth 
must have gradually cooled and advanced in its organic 
conditions in the order and to the degree indicated by 
these remains, when, in fact, the earth, as a whole, during 
the same time, had not advanced in a perceptible degree. 
Suppose that, after the formation just described had 
been made and finished, another spot, at a distance from 
it, had been repeatedly elevated and inhabited in the 
same manner, and in subsequent ages examined by the 
same geologist ; if similarity of organic remains is to be 
considered sufficient proof of contemporaneous exist- 
ence, the geologist, in this case, would be entirely mis- 
led. To obviate this source of error, it will be well to 
consider whether there is any method of learning the 
relative ages of the various mountains which are distant 
from each other. If it should be rendered probable by 
further investigation, as I think it will, that the eleva- 
tions commenced at the north-east,* in the polar regions, 
and then proceeded in a south-western direction, we 

* "The dh-ision of the animal and vegetable creation into geographical 
districts has been contemporaneous with the rise of land." — Somerville. 



GEOLOGY. 85 

shall be able to combine a knowledge of the relative 
ages of the elevations with those of the formations, and 
thus improve our geological calendar. 

After carefully reviewing all the geological forma- 
tions and their order of deposition in connection with 
the theory of the elevation of the land by the pressure 
and sinking of strata, we shall find that the whole sub- 
ject will be greatly simplified by regarding the thinnest 
portions of the lowest formations as having been the first 
raised above the sea, and the next formation as being 
deposited near the shores or borders of the first eleva- 
tion, so as to tend, by its subsidence, to elevate it still 
more. As land rose higher, it carried up with it a 
portion (generally the thinnest) of the next lower forma- 
tion ; at a third elevatory impulse a third formation 
was raised, and so on until the continents assumed their 
present outlines, and the geological formations their 
present arrangements. 

This view of the matter shows why it is that each 
formation appears to have been closed by convulsions • 
for they raised some part of the formations above the 
reach of further deposits of a similar character, and, at 
the same time, qualified the locality for the reception or 
generation of new and higher organic forms. 

I was first led to the novel conclusions, published in 
these pages, by observing that the directions of the prin- 
cipal mountain chains, and also their curves, correspond 
with the directions which the ocean currents must nat- 
urally have pursued when the land was submerged be- 
neath the sea. Eeasoning from the known to the un- 
known, I inferred that the Gulf Stream, which certainly 
8 



86 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

runs in an irregular ellipse, is not governed by dif- 
ferent laws from those which regulate the other ocean 
currents, and therefore they must all tend to run in 
similar elliptical directions ; and, as the laws of nature 
are the same in all ages of the world, the present dry 
lands were once acted upon by the ocean currents, just 
as the bed of the ocean is now. When to this I added 
the fact that the geological strata are laid in ranges 
which are parallel to the mountains, it only remained 
for me to conclude that the subsidence of the heaviest 
strata caused the elevation of the highest mountains, 
and the geonomic theory was complete. 

Geology affords no evidence that there were moun- 
tains in existence before the deposition of the stratified 
rocks. Surely all the commonly supposed causes of 
volcanic excitement existed then, as now, in full vigor. 
This fact, when admitted, is alone presumptive evidence, 
that the subsidence of the strata in one place caused 
their elevation in another. 

It explains why we have no mountains of mere gran- 
ite, with horizontal stratified rocks at their bases, and 
why we have no mountains of the highest class, which 
are encased in gneiss and primary slate only. 

The first stratified deposits from the waters of the 
primitive ocean produced a low class of elevations ; 
subsequent deposits, in many instances, raised those 
same mountains' still higher by causing a greater degree 
of subsidence, while other mountains remained in their 
original lowliness. Is it to be believed that the causes 
of volcanic eruptions slumbered quietly in the deep 
bosom of the young earth, while the granite crust 



4 

I 



GEOLOGY. 87 

formed more than a mile thick over the liquid lava, and 
the ocean of hot waters rolled tumultuously above this 
new crust ? What prevented the subterranean ocean of 
lava from sending up some permanent volcanic signs of 
its existence for our present instruction ? 

If, as some suppose, steam is the cause of volcanoes, 
did it not exist then in the greatest quantities? Did 
not internal heat exist then ? Did not the attraction 
of the moon and the heat of the sun — in a word, did 
not all the supposed causes of volcanic disturbance exist, 
except the weight of the stratified deposits? Profess- 
or Philips says that the principal convulsions of the 
earth happened, 1. Immediately after the deposition of 
the Silurian, or lowest stratified formation ; 2. Immedi- 
ately after the accumulation of the coal system ; 3. Af- 
ter the deposition of the oolitic rocks ; 4. After the 
deposition of the chalk ; 5. After the formation of the 
tertiary system. 

In this brief statement, the veteran English geolo- 
gist gives a history of the principal geological forma- 
tions, in the very language required by the geonomic 
theory. He makes ifive grand periods of stratified 
formation, each of which is foUowed by a convulsion and 
an additional upheaval of the land. His extensive and 
life-long experience has impressed upon his mind, as it 
has upon all practical geologists, that each convulsion 
and upheaval, which has left a monument of its power, 
took place immediately after the deposition of a great 
formation. 

The following is the almost prophetic language used 
by Professor Philips : — 



88 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

" Principal Epochs of Convulsion. — By pursuing this 
investigation in different situations, we find that these 
internal movements, or convulsions, happened at inter- 
vals during the whole period of time occupied in the 
deposition of the strata. Some of the most prevalent 
and remarkable cases of dislocation and unconformity 
are, however, observable : 1. Immediately after the dep- 
osition of the Silurian series ; 2. After the accumula- 
tion of the coal system ; 3. After the deposition of the 
oolitic rocks ; 4. After the deposition of the chalk ; 
and, 5. One of the most recent, probably, of all, after 
the completion of almost all the formations above the 
chalk. It is not to be supposed that all, even of these 
principal cases of dislocation, can be recognized in 
every country ; on the contrary, the subterranean forces 
appear frequently to have shifted their points of action. 
We shall have occasion to show, while speaking of 
the organic remains, that there is sometimes observed a 
singular harmony between these periods of extraordina- 
ry internal disturbance and the several epochs when the 
different races of animals and plants came into exist- 
ence ; and it is not unreasonable to suppose that in 
this manner it may be hereafter found possible to estab- 
lish such a relation between the internal and external 
conditions of the earth, as to afford the greatest assist- 
ance towards defining the agencies which have produced 
changes so extensive and repeated in both." — Philips's 
Manual of Geology, page 36, (1855.) 

We have mountains with only Cambrian and silurian 
rocks tilted around their bases, but none of these are 
very high ; they were raised by the subsidence of the 



GEOLOGY. 89 

earliest formations. We have other mountains with 
Silurian and carboniferous rocks dipping around them ; 
they are higher, but not equal in elevation to those that 
in addition have the chalk and tertiary formations in- 
clining upon their sides. The highest mountains are 
those that have been more or less elevated in modern 
times. All high mountains bear evidence of being 
raised at several different epochs ; as if one formation 
subsided and forced them up to a certain point, and 
then another and another superadded formation caused 
a further subsidence in the same locality, which raised 
the same mountains to their present height. I know of 
no other theory by which these successive upheavals of 
the same places have been or can be accounted for, even 
by conjecture, though it seems to me that nothing can be 
more simple or reasonable than the explanation which 
is afforded by the geonomic theory here given. 

The elliptical circulation of the ocean waters being 
admitted, it follows that each distinct ellipse must be 
a separate geological basin, and that the phenomena 
which are presented in one basin must be repeated in 
another with but little variation. In this respect geo- 
logical formations must be, like peninsulas and moun- 
tain ranges, liable to be repeated again and again, wher- 
ever the elliptical circulation of the waters is repeated. 
Hereafter, it will be a question when a geological exam- 
ination of any district is made. To what ellipse does 
it belong ? Assuming that mountains were caused in 
the first place by the sinking of the primitive strata, 
the secondary strata would of course be laid upon the 
top of the primitive, and the mountains would be paral- 



90 ' OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

lei with both ; not because the mountains or shores 
fenced in the currents, and forced them to assume their 
characteristic curves, but it is because the strata, the 
shores, and the mountains, received their curves from the 
currents to which they all owed their birth. 

The geological strata are piled up as if one formation 
was riding upon the other behind ; each new addition 
tending to tip the hindmost part of the load farther 
down. We actually find the last deposited strata, when 
undisturbed, in the lowest situations, and the first the 
highest. The lowest deposits are near the shore, and 
frequently extend beneath the sea ; and there, over all, 
another formation, of unknown depth, is taking place, 
which, if it subsides by its weight, must press the lava 
up to the highest part of the slope in the manner of a 
wave, forcing it out at the top of a volcano, or a series 
of volcanoes, along a line of fractures parallel with 
the line of the deposits whose pressure produced the 
movement. 

Sometimes it has probably happened that one forma- 
tion, as it is called, did not weigh enough to turn the 
-^.cale, and produce a movement, until another, and per- 
haps a third, was added ; but when the mass moved, 
though but a few feet, it would cause a tremendous vol- 
cano at the point where it was vented. 

It will be admitted that depositions of sediment have 
always been made horizontally ; of course, the first 
depositions were so. If any submarine mountains had 
existed at that time, the strata must have been formed 
horizontally on the tops of those mountains ; or if the 
mountains had been previously elevated above the sea, 



GEOLOGY. 91 

the strata must have formed around their bases in a 
horizontal manner. If, afterwards, the whole mountain 
had been elBvated still higher, the granitic top would 
yet have towered high above all the strata, and borne 
the most decisive evidence of its priority of birth. But 
no such mountains exist. All granitic crags are 
sheathed in gneiss, slate, sandstone, or limestone, which 
has fallen from water, and been pierced by, and been 
elevated along with, the granite. 

There are no granitic mountains with only horizontal 
strata around them. The primary stratified rocks, 
therefore, were not deposited at the bases of mountain 
ranges of granite, for none such existed when the first 
aqueous deposits were made ; and I conclude they never 
would have existed but for the pressure of the accumu- 
lated sediment in one place, forcing the lava to seek 
relief and an outlet above. 

The igneous crust of the earth was equalized in 
thickness by the internal heat below it and the water 
which flowed above it. Bearing with equal weight upon 
all points of the earth's surface, it could of course pro- 
duce no mountains nor valleys. But the water, alter- 
nately heated at the tropics and cooled at the poles, was 
made to carry detritus, and make deposits in the course 
of its circuit, until it formed for itself an elliptical 
path, bounded by strata, the weight of which has pro- 
duced parallel mountain ranges and shores, whose length 
and height have continually increased to the present 
time, to give outlines to our continents and variety to 
our climes. 



9^ OUTLINES OF GEONOMT. 

SECTION y. 

PARALLELISM OF CUHRENTS, STRATA, AND MOUNTAINS, 

No class of facts relating to this subject will be as 
convincing to a geologist as those which show that the 
mountains are parallel to the strike or range of the 
stratified rocks, and to the ocean currents also. 

Professor Philips, in his excellent Manual of Geology, 
(London, 1855, p. 67,) says, — 

"It was long since remarked by Mitchell, (one of the 
best and earliest of English geologists,) that the direc- 
tion of the strata, in any region, was generally parallel 
to the ranges of mountains — a truth of great impor- 
tance in the modern system of geology. 

" The most prevalent range of the strata in any coun- 
try must, however, depend on another circumstance, viz., 
the original line of the ocean's boundary. In many 
parts of the globe, the most prevalent direction of the 
strata is observed to be north-east and south-west. Hum- 
boldt was so struck with these loxodromic [oblique] 
lines in Europe, that he says one of his principal in- 
ducements to visit equatorial America was to examine 
the directions of the strata there. He has furnished 
evidence that 'parallelism of the strata to the great lines 
of mountains is a general law of nature ^ 

It would certainly be difficult to defend the geonomic 
theory, if the general parallelism of the strata, an- 



PARALLELISM OF CUERENTS, STRATA, ETC. 93 

nounced by Mitchell, and confirmed by the venerable 
Humboldt, did not exist. But this being thus settled 
by the very highest authorities in science, and it being 
self-evident that the deposits from the water must be 
made in the paths of the currents, and that the currents 
must move in conformity with the astronomic laws which 
produce the changes of the seasons and the rotation of 
the earth, there is little else to prove. 

There is nothing inconsistent with these principles in 
the fact that in some instances the strike of the strata 
run, as, according to Lyell and Yon Dechen, they do in 
the Hartz Mountains, frequently north-east, and south- 
west, while the geographical direction of the mountains 
is transverse. This may always be expected in cases 
where opposite currents have alternately prevailed in 
the same region, and passed over parts of the same 
area, each current depositing its burden of sediment in 
the line of its own path. The result would naturally 
be, that the heaviest ridge of stratified sediment would 
prevail, and raise a mountain parallel to its own course 
or strike; in doing this it would make a transverse 
section of the strata which run in the opposite direction. 
This is one of those cases where the exception clearly 
proves the rule. 

There are some such striking parallelisms of the 
mountains to each other, to the sea shores, to lines of 
volcanoes, and to the range of stratified deposits of an- 
cient detritus, that it was almost impossible for geolo- 
gists to avoid noticing them. Elie de Beaumont in- 
ferred that those mountains that are parallel to each 
other were elevated simultaneously, and at a different 



94 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

period from the others. The reader will, however, per- 
ceive that geonomy lends no support to this theory, but 
rather it indicates that the mountains of Asia were 
created first, and that the progress of detritus was 
south-westward to Patagonia. Beaumont attributes 
the elevations, as most authors do, to the expansion of 
vapors and gases. Humboldt, in his " Cosmo.^,*' suggests 
that volcanoes rise in lines along shores, because they 
meet with less resistance there than at other places ; 
but on the whole he admits his inability to understand 
the phenomena, and contents himself with adding essen- 
tially to our knowledge of facts. This distinguished phi- 
losopher performed a service to science by sanction- 
ing with his authority the suggestion of Mitchell, that 
ranges of strata are laid parallel to ranges of moun- 
tains ; though it appears to be more in accordance with 
the facts to say that mountains are raised in lines par- 
allel to the ranges of strata ; and I would remark, in 
reference to Baron Humboldt's su2:a:estion concernino; 
shores, that ranges of mountains rose in lines before 
shores existed ; indeed, it was such lines that originally 
constituted shores. 

It has often been observed that the appearance of a 
mountainous country resembled the waves of the sea. 
Professor H. D. Rogers was particularly struck with 
the parallelism of groups of mountains to each other, 
when he was engaged in the survey of the Appalachian 
chain in Pennsylvania, in company with his brother. 
Professor Wm. B. Rogers. He attempts to account for 
the wave-like appearances, by assuming that a sudden 
explosion of gaseous elements had in each instance 



PARALLELISM OP CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC, 95 

caused an undulation of the liquid ocean below the 
earth's crust ; that the undulation took the same form 
as that which is generally assumed by the ocean's 
waves, but more regular. These subterraneous waves, 
acting upwards, elevated the crust, and impressed upon 
it their own wave-like or undulatory forms. Although 
I cannot- subscribe to the theory adopte'd by Professor 
Rogers, I must do him the justice to acknowledge that 
he has shown, by an array of important and original 
observations, that, in many instances, the separate 
groups of mountains do appear to assume the charac- 
teristic forms of waves, their crests all inclining in one 
direction. In some instances the mountain top is folded 
over so that it points downward. 

If one mountain crest only presented the appearance 
of inclination in a particular direction, it might be at- 
tributed to accident ; but it is a universal fact, that, in 
each distinct group of parallel mountains, the crests 
incline in one direction, just as do those of the wBjVes 
of the sea, when urged by a strong wind. The irresist- 
ible inference is, that a common or a similar cause 
operated upon them all, bending them in one common 
direction, in such a way as to produce the wave form 
which is now apparent. 

Professor Rogers concluded that there must have 
been a large body of liquid lava below the crust, the 
undulatory movements of which produced the appear- 
ances that he has so well described. He was confirmed 
in his views by noticing that the tops of these rocky 
waves are progressively more distant from each other, 
and also less elevated and less inclined, the farther they 



96 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

are situated from the highest petrified mountain wave, 
or what he denominates " the chief igneous axis of dis- 
turbance." 

It had been previously remarked that the long, gentle 
slopes of the land are most frequently to the north and 
east, and that the abrupt slopes are to the south and 
west ; but the details of the wave-like arrangement had 
not before been distinctly described. It must be ob- 
served, however, that while the observations of Profess- 
or Rogers indicate . that the difference in the steepness 
of the opposite slopes of the same mountain is owing to 
the direction of the force which produces the elevations, 
it gives no clew to the cause of their assuming one 
direction rather than another, nor of their operating 
in such long extended lines as those which the Appala- 
chians present. But the geonomic theory shows plainly 
and consistently how the appearance of waves origi- 
nated ; why they were produced in lines in one direc- 
tion ; why they differ in height ; why they operated with 
most intensity at the close of the geological formations ; 
why they are parallel to those formations, to the ocean 
channels, to the shores, and to each other ; and also 
why the mountains have progressively increased in 
height as the stratified deposits have increased in depth. 
The geonomic theory also gives a perfect explanation 
of the fact that the abrupt slopes of the mountains are 
towards the east in the eastern part of Asia, Australia, 
and Africa, towards the south in the southern part of 
Asia and Europe, towards the west in the north-western 
part of Europe and almost every part of the two Ameri- 
cas. In fact the greater abruptness is towards the larger 



PARALLELISM OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 97 

ocean, where the most detritus has accumulated, and the 
greater subsidences have been produced. 

Although nearly all the mountains of the eastern con- 
tinent slope abruptly to the east or south, the Scandi- 
navian and British mountains are exceptions, and are 
most elevated towards the Atlantic Ocean.* 

Subsidences unquestionably may produce waves in 
the lava beneath the crust, but it does not follow that 
mountains are petrified waves, nor that the lava moved 
in waves in the direction indicated by the foldings of 
the mountain crests. The probability is, that it moved 
in a contrary direction, and that the crests are produced 
by the reaction of one wave against another ; the side 
on which there was the least subsidence overriding the 
other, and allowing it to spend its force against the 
base of the abrupt side of the mountain. 

Professor Traill in his article on Physical Geography, 
in the Encyclopasdia Britannica, remarks, — 

" If we endeavor to generalize the observations on 
the direction of mountain chains, one very remarkable 
peculiarity seems deducible, namely, that they very gen- 
erally present their steepest acclivities towards the 
great basins to which they are contiguous, while they 
slope more gradually in the opposite direction ; and on 
examining their intimate structure, we find their strati- 



* The gradual elevation on the west and depression on the east of the 
south-eastern parts of England, parallel to the line of the oolites, and pro- 
longed in duration through the whole period of the saliferous, oOHte, cre- 
taceous, and tertiary rocks, would fully agree with the general physical 
features of the surface of the district." — Philips's Mamial of Geology. 

9 



98 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

fied beds dipping generally from the basins to which 
their escarpments are presented. Thus the ridges of 
the Scandinavian peninsula present their boldest escarp- 
ments to the basin of the Northern Atlantic ; while the 
opposite ranges of Greenland and Iceland also show 
their steepest acclivities towards that basin. Round 
the shores of the Mediterranean the same arrangements 
are especially observable. The lofty ridge of the Atlas 
is very bold on the northern side, and declines more 
gradually towards the Sahara. The chain of Spanish 
mountains which skirt the Mediterranean, froui Gibral- 
tar to the Pyrenees, present their escarpments towards 
that sea ; and the Maritime Alps of France, the moun- 
tains of Switzerland and the Tyrol, of Istria, Dalmatia, 
and Thrace, all present their most precipitous sides to 
the basin of the Mediterranean. We believe that the 
considerable chain which in Asia Minor extends from 
Mount Ida to the country around Scanderoon has the 
escarpment directed towards the Levant seas ; while 
the mountains of Armenia present their boldest declivi- 
ties to the basin of the Euxine, and the Caucasus and 
mountains of Mazanderan towards that of the Caspian. 
The escarpment of the great chain of Africa, termed 
that of Lupata, which seems to be prolonged from the 
lofty mountains of Abyssinia to the south of the Mo- 
zambique Channel, would appear, from the little we 
have learned of its structure, to face the basin of the 
Indian Ocean ; and we know that the steepest decliv- 
ities of the Western Ghauts of India are directed 
towards the same basin. The mighty spine of the 



PAEALLELISM OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 99 

American continent, from the shores of the Arctic Fro- 
zen Ocean to the extremity of South America, through 
a course of more than eight thousand six hundred British 
miles, presents a series of rugged precipices to the vast 
basin of the Pacific ; and, if we might indulge in one 
sweeping generalization, it would seem that the chains 
stretching from the Persian Gulf eastward through 
Thibet, and thence bending to the north-east through 
Mongolia and Northern China to Tscheoutskoi-nos on 
the Frozen Ocean, present their fronts also to the Pa- 
cific Ocean. 

" As such coincidences can scarcely be considered as 
accidental, they afford a wide field for speculation. 
Can we suppose that appearances, on such an immense 
scale, have any relation ta the operation of the force 
which caused the elevation of the land, acting towards 
a central point, and producing the dip of the elevated 
strata all around, from a common axis of movement ? 
Such speculations, aided by the position of volcanoes, and 
other mountains of igneous formation, might lead us to 
infer the direction of the great lines of subterranean dis- 
turbances which have modified the appearance of the 
crust of the earth.'' 

The preceding observations of Professor Traill are 
very interesting and instructive ; but the learned author 
did not mention that there are some remarkable excep- 
tions to the rule that mountains present " their steepest 
acclivities to the great basins to which they are contigu- 
ous J^ The Appalachians, for instance, are contiguous to 
the Atlantic, but they present their steepest acclivities 
to the Pacific ; and this, in my opinion, proves that at the 



100 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

time that the Appalachians were elevated, which was 
immediately after the coal period, the Pacific extended 
to the western side of the Appalachians, and the Rocky 
Mountains were not then in existence. (See Professor 
Guyot's Earth and Man.) 

The rule seems to be, that if an elevation is contigu- 
ous to two oceans, it presents its steepest acclivities to 
the larger one, and in all cases it presents them to the 
basin the subsidence, of which caused the elevation. 

Perhaps one of the best authenticated cases that I 
can produce at present, in which earthquakes have been 
detected in the very act of producing elevations in lines 
parallel to the lines of subsidence and to the shore lines, 
is the following, related by Mr. Lyell : — 

" A violent earthquake occurred at Cutch, in the 
delta of the Indus, June 16, 1819. The sea flowed in 
by the eastern mouth of the Indus, and in a few hours 
converted a tract of land two thousand square miles in 
area into an inland sea, or lagoon. 

"Immediately after the shock, the inhabitants of 
Sindree saw, at the distance of five miles and a half from 
their sunken village, a long, elevated mound, where pre- 
viously there had been a perfectly level plain. To this 
uplifted tract they gave the name of ' Ulla Bund,' 
or the ' Mound of God.' 

" It has been ascertained that this newly-raised coun- 
try is upwards of fifty miles in length, from east to 
west, running parallel to that line of subsidence before 
mentioned, which caused the grounds around Sindree to 
be flooded ; its breadth from north to south is conjec- 
tured to be in some parts sixteen miles, and its greatest 



PARALLELISM OP CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 101 

ascertained height above the original level of the delta 
is ten feet, — an elevation which appears to the eye to 
be very uniform throughout." 



STEAM AND EXPLOSIVE THEORY. 

Whatever may be thought of my views, the steam 
and ex]^osive theory is utterly inadequate to account 
for the origin of earthquakes and volcanoes ; for even 
if we assume that water, in sufficient quantities, when 
brought into contact with melted lava, would generate 
steam enough to elevate mountains and continents, we 
must previously contrive some way for the water to 
penetrate through the crust of the earth. Here our 
theorists rely upon "accidents" to produce eruptions, 
and upon " dislocations caused by previous eruptions." 
It appears to me that there is no known way in which 
the crust of the earth could be originally broken, ex- 
cept by external pressure. It must also be evident that 
it requires as great a force to break the crust downward 
and. admit the water to the liquid lava as it does to 
raise the lava to the surface. When the deposits press 
the crust, and cause it to move downward, they must 
crowd away the lava which is underneath, and break 
the crust besides. If we have a force sufficient to do 
this, we require no other ; for the downward movement 
in one line will, of itself, cause an upward, wave-like 
movement of the lava in a parallel line. 

When the granite was first formed on the surface of 
the lava, and the waters and atmosphere arranged 
themselves concentrically above, what was there to 
9^ 



102 OUTLINES OF GEONOMT. 

cause the water to come into contact with the subter- 
ranean lava, except the unequal downward pressure of 
detritus and strata ? The suggestion that crevices made 
during one earthquake are the passages by which the 
water enters to produce a subsequent explosion an in- 
definite time afterwards, is too palpably illogical to re- 
quire a serious refutation, since the very question is, 
what caused the first eruptions ? ♦ 

Sir Charles Lvell and some others imao^ine that the 
lava which is emitted through volcanoes cause vacant 
places beneath the crust, so that it is liable at any time 
to collapse and fall beneath its own weight, and thus ex- 
tend the depth of the ocean. On the other hand, when 
the crust is elevated by volcanic action, they suppose 
that it sustains itself on the principle of an arch 
after the lava and gases which temporarily upheld it 
have subsided. These are the speculations to which 
even superior minds are driven to support an erroneous 
opinion. 

Let us suppose, for the sake of argument, that the 
water, by some accident, should actually pass through a 
chasm in the crust ; what would be the natural effect ? 
Would it produce an explosion which would operate in 
regular lines for hundreds of miles, and cau^e long, 
beautiful, petrified waves in the lava, several thousand 
feet high, by its reaction, and yet merely break the 
earth's crust at the top ? Would it not, like the explo- 
sion of a mine, scatter the external crust in all direc- 
tions, leaving nothing to mark the spot but a deep, 
irreo'ular pit, bordered by cliaotic ruins? 

If any philosopher who believes in this theory pos- 



PARALLELISM OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 103 

sesses a practical turn of mind, he can easily verify his 
opinions by an experiment. Let him take a vessel 
which is filled with molten metal or lava, cover the 
surface of the liquid with a red-hot iron plate, strewn 
with sand and clay, to represent the earth's crust, 
fasten it securely in its place ; now, through a pre-ar- 
ranged crevice, admit a little water into the vessel, and 
observe the effect. Let the experimenter vary the op- 
eration in any way he may please, provided he brings 
liquid lava and water together, he will have nothing 
but an irregular and ruinous explosion. If any waves 
are produced in the lava, they will move in all direc- 
tions, and subside again to their original place. 

Reason upon this subject as we may, we must com- 
mence with a lineal cause. Whatever produces the 
first movement of an earthquake evidently moves in a 
line. If we suppose that the earthquake merely breaks 
through a previously prepared line, we must yet inquire 
what force caused the original line to extend so far in 
one direction, instead of radiating in many lines from 
one point. If we assume that the force was constrained 
by some limiting cause, then we must inquire what was 
that cause ; for that also must have acted in a line. 
The problem appears to be solved when we ascertain 
that the lines of mountains are parallel with the lines 
of stratified deposits, and that both are in the line of 
the ancient ocean currents. 

Some of those who advocate the steam and explosive 
theory combine with it the idea that the cooling and 
contraction of the internal nucleus of the earth leaves a 
space between the nucleus and the crust, so that when 



104 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

the crust collapses it lets the water down upon the lava 
beneath. According to this theory the earth may be 
compared to a dried fig, the outer enveloping skin of 
which is too large for the internal parts that have lost 
their juices by eyaporation. 

Notwithstanding that mathematical calculations ap- 
pear to demonstrate that the loss of heat by radiation 
through the crust could not possibly be sufficient to pro- 
duce the contraction which this hypothesis demands, it 
is still adhered to by some geologists^ apparently for the 
want of a more plausible explanation of the facts. 

According to Mrs. Somerville, " M. Fourier has com- 
puted that the central heat is decreasing from radiation 
by only about the one three thousandth part of a second 
in a century. If so, there can be no doubt that ulti- 
mately it will all be dissipated ; but as far as regards 
organic life it is of very little consequence whether the 
centre of our planet be liquid fire, or ice, since its con- 
dition in either case would have no sensible effect on the 
climate of the surface.'^ 

Mr. Lyell remarks, that " astronomers having proved 
that there has been no perceptible change in the diame- 
ter of the earth during the last two thousand years, we 
may assume it as probable that the dimensions of the 
planet remain uniform. If, then, we inquire in what 
manner the force of earthquakes must be regulated in 
order to restore perpetually the inequalities of the sur- 
face, which the levelling power of the water tends to 
efface, it will be found that the amount of depression 
must exceed that of elevation. It would be otherwise 
if the action of volcanoes and mineral springs were sus- 



PARALLELIS3I OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 105 

pended ; for then the forcing out of the earth's envelope 
ought to be no more than equal to its sinking in. 

'' To understand this proposition more clearly, it must 
be borne in mind that the deposits of rivers and cur- 
rents probably add as much to lands which are rising 
as they take from those which have risen." 

Geologists have been much puzzled to find a normal 
force which is powerful enough to cause the upheaval 
of continents, and yet capable of remaining quiet when 
not wanted to produce terrestrial convulsions. Such a 
force is found. Nature is engaged during a whole geo- 
logical age in accumulating at one end of a scale-beam 
a weight sufficient to raise the other end ; and when the 
time has nearly arrived, the balance trembles with warn- 
ing, and then moves — sometimes suddenly — just far 
enough to restore the lost equilibrium, but no farther. 
In all cases the movement upwards must be exactly 
equalled by the movement downwards. 

We have the high authority of Lyell to sustain the 
assumption that the subsidences of the earth's crust are 
on the whole fully equal to the elevations ; and the 
logical reader will perceive that the admission is of 
considerable importance to the new theory. 

Sir John Herschel, being struck, as Humboldt was, 
by the fact that most volcanoes are situated near the sea 
shores, proposed a theory in which he assumed that two 
corresponding openings are made through the crust of 
the earth before the eruption commences ; one at the bot- 
tom of the ocean, — not by the weight of the detritus 
there, but by its non-conducting qualities, like addi- 
tional clothing to our bodies, preventing the escape of 



106 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

the internal heat, so that it melts a portion of the crust. 
The other opening is made near the sea shore, where the 
abrasion of the waves has already worn the crust very 
thin, and thus exposed it to cool unequally, and conse- 
quently to crack opes. These two openings being thus 
previously made, by directly opposite causes, the super- 
incumbent water and detritus are supposed by their 
weight to crowd a portion of the melted matter down 
through the orifice at the bottom, and to force an equal 
quantity of lava to vent itself through the higher open- 
ing near the shore. 

This hypothesis, besides being subject to the serious 
objection of being founded upon two very doubtful as- 
sumptions concerning mptures of the earth's crust, en- 
tirely fails to account for the established fact of the 
gradual elevation of whole countries and continents 
without any volcanic eruptions whatever. According 
to the geonomic theory advocated in these pages, earth- 
quakes and eruptions of lava are only occasional inci- 
dents which attend the elevation of lands. Scandinavia 
affords an illustration in point ; the depression of the 
southern shore and of the ocean's bed has caused the 
northern portion of Sweden and Finland to rise, slowly 
and gradually, for ages, without being visited by any 
volcanoes ; but let the upward progress of the land be 
resisted and prevented, or let the crust be weakened at 
a particular point, and a quaking or a local eruption 
would be the immediate consequence. I doubt not that 
the volcanoes of IceFand and the Faroe Islands are 
caused by the same general depression which is elevating 
Sweden. 



PARALLELISM OF CURRENTS, STRATA, ETC. 107 

It has been observed (see Silliman's Journal, vol. 
xix. p. 55) that earthquakes happen most frequently 
during the time of certain tides. Is this because the 
weight and pressure of the ocean at that time is greater 
than usual in some places, and less in others ? If the 
observation is correct, — and I have no doubt of it, — 
does it not harmonize with the views advocated in these 
pages ? 

THICKNESS OP THE CRUST. 

In regard to the thickness of the earth's crust, noth- 
ing certain is known. All the prominent authors who 
have referred to it treat the stratified rocks as if they 
were a part of the crust ; and when they claim that they 
have been able to measure from ten to sixty-eight miles 
perpendicularly by adding together the thicknesses of a 
succession of overlapping strata, they appear to- assume 
that the real crust of the earth is known to that depth. 
But the true original crust is granite only, upon which 
the strata are superimposed. Dr. Hitchcock says, — 

" If we get the perpendicular thickness of a series of 
strata, we ascertain the character of the crust of the 
globe to that depth. If we measure the breadth of a 
series of upturned strata, on a line at right angles to 
their strike, and ascertain their dip, we have given the 
hypoihenuse and angles of a right-angled triangle to 
find tlie perpendicular, which is the thickness of the 
strata. If the strata are perpendicular, a horizontal 
line across their edges gives their thickness. By meas- 
urements and calculations of this sort, it has been ascer- 
tained that the total thickness of the fossiliferous strata 



108 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

in Europe is not less than twenty-seven miles. In 
Pennsjlyania, the fossiliferous rocks beneath the top of 
the coal measures are forty thousand feet, or more than 
seven and a half miles in thickness. (Rogers's Report.) 
In the peninsula of Tauris, Pallas describes a continued 
series of primary strata, inclined forty-five degrees over 
a distance of eighty-six miles ; which would give a per- 
pendicular thickness of more than sixty-eight miles. 
(LyelFs Geology.) In New England, as, for instance, on 
the railroad between Westfield and Pittsfield, we have 
strata of primary rocks, for the most part nearly per- 
pendicular, not less than twenty miles in thickness." 

I cannot help suspecting that the thicknesses of the 
strata are greatly overrated ; but assuming the very 
lowest estimates to be correct, the weight of the strata 
gives us a force quite sufficient to account for all the 
phenomena of earthquakes and volcanoes. 

There is nothing, with which we are acquainted, to 
thicken the granite crust of the earth, except the radi- 
ation of the internal heat into celestial space. It must, 
therefore, be of nearly a uniform thickness ; and since 
granite is exceedingly non-conductive, I see no reason 
for supposing the crust to be more than one mile thick 
in any place. 



LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. 109 



SECTION YI. 

RELATION OF LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS TO 
EACH OTHER AND TO EARTHQUAI£ES. 

The term plateau is applied to a series of valleys be- 
tween mountains of comparatively moderate height. In 
the progress of continental elevation, plateaus must have 
once been islands, with groups of mountains running 
across them, after the manner of Great Britain and Ire- 
land. The same upheaving cause which raises a succession 
of narrow mountains forms them into a group, and rends 
their axes to give vent to igneous rocks, operates in a 
more steady and quiet, though perhaps really more pow- 
erful manner, to produce those elevations of the land 
which we call plateaus. We may regard a plateau as a 
wider species of mountain, or a succession of nearly 
parallel ridges of mountains, which anciently was an 
island ; and in being afterwards elevated to its present 
height, it drew the lower lands after it from the sea, 
and forced up the mountain ridges as much higher as it 
rose itself. Anatomically speaking, a plateau may be 
regarded as the skeleton of a continent, while the main 
ridge of mountains is the backbone, and the lowlands 
the most external and active portions. 

"Viewing things on a broad scale, it appears that 

there is a very striking connection between the physical 

geography, or external aspect of different countries and 

their geological structure. By a minute comparison of 

10 



110 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

the different parts of the land, M. Bou^ has shown 
that similarity of outward forms, while indicating simi- 
larity in the producing causes, must also, to a large ex- 
tent, indicate identity of structure, and therefore from 
the external appearance of an unexplored country its 
geological structure may be inferred, at least to a cer- 
tain extent. 

"The form of the great continent has been determined 
by an immense zone of mountains and table lands, lying 
between the thirtieth and fortieth or forty-fifth parallels 
of north latitude, which stretches across it from w^est- 
south-west to east- north-east, from the coasts of Barbary 
and Portugal, on tlie Atlantic Ocean, to the-farthest ex- 
tremity of Asia, at Behring's Straits in the North Pacific. 
North of this lies a vast plain, extending almost from 
the Pyrenees to the extremity of Asia, the greater por- 
tion of which is a dead level, or low undulations unin- 
terrupted except by the Scandinavian and British system 
on the north, and the Ural chain, which is of but small 
elevation. 

*' The table-lands which constitute the tops of moun- 
tains, or of mountain chains, are of a different charac- 
ter from those terraces by which the high lands slope to 
the low. The former are on a small scale in Europe, 
and of a forbidding aspect, with the exception of the 
Jura, which is pastoral. The mass of high land in 
South-eastern Europe shelves on the north to the great 
plain of Bavaria, three thousand feet high ; Bohemia, 
which slopes from fifteen hundred to nine hundred feet ; 
and Hungary, from four thousand above the sea to three 
hundred. The descent on the south side of the Alps 
is six or seven times more rapid. 



LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. Ill 

" As the table lands extend from south-west to north- 
east, so also do the principal mountain chains, as well 
those which bound the high lands as those that traverse 
them. 

" Remarkable exceptions to this equatorial direction 
of the Asiatic mass, however,, occur in a series of me- 
ridional chains, whose axes extend from south-south- 
east to north-north-west, between Cape Cormorin, oppo- 
site to Ceylon, and the Arctic Ocean, under the names 
of the Western Ghauts, the Soliman, East Persia range, 
the Bola, West Tibet, and the Oural ; to this may be 
added the Khinghan, in China. 

" Tibet is a mountain valley enclosed between the 
chains of the Himalaya on the south, and the Kuen-lun 
on the north. 

" The table land of Tibet is only four thousand feet 
above the sea towards the north ; but it rises in Little 
Tibet to between eleven thousand and twelve thousand 
feet. 

" The great northern plain is broken by two masses 
of high land, in every respect inferior to the Oural and 
the Scandinavian. The Scandinavian mountain has been 
compared to a great billow, or wave, rising gradually 
from the east, which, after having formed a crest, falls 
perpendicularly into the sea at the west." — Mrs. Som- 
crville. 

The lovv^lands and the highest mountain peaks appear 
to have been raised after the intermediate plateaus, for 
there is perfect geological evidence that the lowest Si- 
berian lands which lie at the north-eastern terminus of 
the Asiatic slope have but recently emerged from the 



112 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

sea ; at the same time the higher parts of the Hima- 
layas contain evidence of, modern volcanic elevations, 
which have certainly taken place since the deposition 
of the first tertiary formations. 

In regard to the modus operandi of the convulsions 
which raised plateaus, it should be remarked that a 
slight depression of a vast submarine plain might qui- 
etly raise a whole country, or it might cause a tremen- 
dous earthquake in a limited region, and a remarkable 
outburst through a long line of parallel volcanoes. 
Suppose, for instance, that a subsidence of one inch 
should take place in a portion of the bed of the Atlan- 
tic consisting of one thousand square miles ; the conse- 
quence would be, that a sheet of lava would be forced 
upward, which would be one inch thick and a thousand 
square miles in superficial extent. If, in rising, the 
crust of the continent did not give way in any particu- 
lar locality, the result might be a quiet and impercepti- 
ble elevation of one thousand square miles of the 
American or European lands to the height of one inch. 
This movement might or might not be accompanied by 
a slight shock or tremulous motion of the earth in some 
places, and a slight comjnotion of the water. On the 
other hand, if a portion of the oppressed lava shouki 
find vent through a parallel line of volcanoes, it would 
elevate the whole mass of land less by so much. 

The place where the pressure and subsidence is great- 
est may be, and doubtless it frequently is, at a great 
distance from that of the eruption of lava, though it 
may also be very near. 

Jorullo, in Mexico, is one hundred and seventy-five 
miles from the nearest sea ; but the lava which it poured 



LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. 113 

forth doubtless pursued the line of the least resistance 
to vent itself there. The subsidence may have hap- 
pened in the Gulf of Mexico, or in the Pacific, or 
we may never be able to determine its locality with 
perfect certainty. I doubt not, however, that the time 
will soon arrive when we shall be able, not only to trace 
each eruption to its source, but to predict its recurrence 
with approximate accuracy from a scientific knowledge 
of its remote causes, its direction, and the angles and 
slopes that it produces. 

I do not wish to be understood as pretending that we 
can now, by looking at a common map, at once proceed 
to explain precisely where the subsidences took place, 
which caused each particular elevation ; nor can we, in 
all cases, point out the direction taken by the lava from 
its deep fountain to its place of eruption ; neither can 
we explain, in every instance, the relation between the 
forms assumed by the continents, peninsulas, and islands, 
without a thorough knowledge of the geological and 
topographical circumstances. I do, however, insist, that 
when a good scientific survey of a region has been 
made, so that its actual structure is known, all will be 
found consistent with the essential principles advanced 
in this treatise. We find but few maps of large coun- 
tries which are reliable, and in regard to many regions 
the authorities differ so essentially that we are in con- 
siderable doubt concerning them. Nothing, however, is 
wanting to determine geonomic questions but a correct 
survey of the premises. I have no hesitation in ex- 
pressing the confident belief that, with the aid of the 
simple principles of geonomy, an ordinary geological 
10 *^ 



114 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

examiner, with ample opportunities, would now be able 
to give a good account of any country on the earth, 
and explain the origin of all its elevations and geologi- 
cal formations. Not only so, he would be able to 
predict with considerable accuracy its future changes 
of level. What geonomer will hereafter express sur- 
prise on hearing that the land at the north end of the 
Gulf of Bothnia is rising, while that at the south is 
sinking? Who will, after this, be puzzled to explain 
why there are volcanic eruptions in the Sicilian islands, 
the Mexican plateau, the Pacific Ocean, or along the 
Aleutian chain. 

If I appear to avoid details in this general treatise, I 
frankly confess that it is in part owing to a desire not 
to weaken my readers' confidence in the novel principles 
which I am advancing, by any rash applications of them 
to cases where the essential topographical circumstances 
are not understood, and where I should consequently be 
liable to commit serious errors. I, therefore, shall re- 
serve for a future time, and perhaps for other, and I 
hope abler hands, the task of applying these principles 
more particularly to special and limited regions. Ex- 
perienced philosophers will appreciate my motives and 
approve of my cautiousness. My only object in this 
treatise is to announce certain laws hitherto unknown, 
that afford a key by means of which the physical 
geography of any region of the land or sea can readily 
be understood after it has been carefully surveyed. 

The following extracts from Lyell's Principles of Ge- 
ology are full of interest and instruction. The facts 
recorded concerning earthquakes and volcanoes are 
highly illustrative of the principles of geonomy, and in 



LO^VLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. 115 

turn receive from them their only rational explanation. 
I leave the readers to make their own application of 
the principles to the facts as related. 

" Lisbon Earthquake. — In no part of the volcanic 
region of Southern Europe has so tremendous an earth- 
quake occurred in modern times as that which began on 
the 1st of November, 1755, at Lisbon. A sound of 
thunder was heard under ground, and immediately 
afterwards a violent shock threw down the greater part 
of the city. In the course of six minutes, sixty thousand 
persons perished. The sea first retired, and laid the 
bar dry ; it then rolled in, rising fifty feet or more 
above its ordinary level. 

" The most extraordinary circumstance which oc- 
curred at Lisbon during the catastrophe was the subsi- 
dence of a new quay, built entirely of marble, at an 
immense expense. The water in the place where the 
quay had stood is stated, in many accounts, to be un- 
fathomable ; but Whitehurst says he ascertained it to 
be one hundred fathoms. 

" The great area over which this Lisbon earthquake 
extended is remarkable. The movement was most vio- 
lent in Spain, Portugal, and the north of Africa ; but 
nearly the whole of Europe, and even the West Indies, 
felt the shock on the same day. 

" The shock was felt at sea on the deck of a ship to 
the west of Lisbon. Another ship, forty leagues west 
of St. Vincent, experienced so violent a concussion that 
the men were thrown a foot and a half perpendicularly 
up from the deck. In Antigua and Barbadoes, as also 
in Norway, Sweden, Germany, and Italy, tremors w^ere 
felt. 



116 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

" A great wave vSwept over the coast of Spain, and it 
is said to have been sixty feet high at Cadiz. At Tan- 
gier, in Africa, it rose and fell eighteen times on the 
coast. In Madeira it rose full fifteen feet perpendicular 
above the high-water mark, although the tide, which 
ebbs and flows there seven feet, was then at half ebb. 
At Kinsale, in Ireland, a body of water rushed into the 
harbor, whirled round several vessels, and poured into 
the market place. 

" The sea first retired at Lisbon ; and this retreat of 
the ocean from the shore at the commencement of an 
earthquake, and its subsequent return in a violent wave, 
is a common occur7'ence. In order to account for the 
phenomenon, Mitchell imagined a subsidence at the 
bottom of the sea, from the giving way of the roof of 
some cavity, in consequence of a vacuum produced by 
the condensation of steam." 

In 1751, at St. Domingo, twenty leagues of the coast 
sunk down, and has since been a bay. 

Mr. Lyell says that " in the earthquake at Chili, in 
1822, the earth was elevated over an area of one hun- 
dred thousand square miles. Mrs. Graham observed, 
after the earthquake of 1822, that, besides the beach 
newly raised above the high- water mark, there were 
several older elevated lines of beach one above the other, 
consisting of sliingle mixed with shells, extending in a 
parallel direction to the shore, to the height of fifty 
feet above the sea. 

" Assuming the great pyramid of Egypt, if solid, to 
weigh, in accordance with an estimate before given, six 
million tons, we may state the rock added to the con- 



LOWLANDS, PLATEAUS, AND MOUNTAINS. 117 

tinent by the Chilian earthquake to have more than 
equalled one hundred thousand pyramids. 

"The discharge of mud in one year by the Ganges 
equalled the weight of sixty pyramids. In that case it 
would require seventeen centuries and a half before the 
river could bear down from the continent into the sea 
a mass equal to that gained by the Chilian earthquake. 

" Violent earthquakes, in 1812, convulsed the valley of 
the Mississippi, at New Madrid, for the space of three 
hundred miles in length. As this happened exactly at 
the same time as the great earthquake of Caraccas, it is 
probable that these two points are parts of one con- 
tinuous volcanic region ; for the whole circumference 
of the intervening Caribbean Sea must be considered 
as a theatre of earthquakes and volcanoes. On the 
north lies the Island of Jamaica, which, with a tract of 
the contiguous sea, has often experienced tremendous 
shocks ; and these are frequent along a line extending 
from Jamaica to St. Domingo and Porto Kico. On 
the" south of the same basin the shores and mountains 
of Colombia are perpetually convulsed. On the west 
is the volcanic chain of Guatimala and Mexico, and on 
the east the West India Islands — St. Yincent and 
Guadaloupe." The same region has been shaken again 
during the last year, (1857,) and a few weeks afterwards 
shocks were felt in the vicinity of Lake Erie. 

The probability is, that the slight shocks which are 
felt in the interior of basins, like the Mississippi valley, 
and in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea, are owing to de- 
pressions produced by the gradual accumulation of 
sediment by the rivers in the deeper and more central 



118 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

portions of the great basin or valley, the weight of 
which occasionally is sufficient to cause a movement of 
the crust. If any one thinks that such small quantities 
of detritus are insufficient to break the crust of the earth, 
let him reflect that we know not how long the load has 
been accumulating, and that the state of the balance 
may be such that it only requires a small additional 
weight to turn the scale. The old proverb is that " it 
is the last feather that breaks the camel's back." 

" In 1815 one of the most frightful eruptions recorded 
in history occurred in the mountain Tomboro, in the 
Island of Sumbawa. It began on tho 5th of April, and 
was most violent on the 11th and 12th, and did not en- 
tirely cease till July. The sound of the explosions was 
heard in Sumatra, at the distance of nine hundred and 
seventy geographical miles in a direct line, and at Ter- 
nate, in an opposite direction, at the distance of seven 
hundred and twenty miles. 

" The area over which tremulous noises and other vol- 
canic effects extended, was one thousand English miles 
in circumference, including the whole of the Molucca 
Islands, Java, a considerable portion of Celebes, Suma- 
tra, and Borneo. 

" In October, 1746, Peru was visited by an earthquake 
which is declared to have been more tremendous and 
extensive than even that of Lisbon in 1755. In the 
first twenty-four hours, two hundred shocks were expe- 
rienced. The ocean twice retired, and returned impet- 
uously upon the land ; Lima was destroyed, and part 
of the coast near Callao was converted into a bay ; four 
other harbors, among which were Cavalla and Gua- 
nape, shared the same fate. 



119 

" The volcanoes of Iceland have been in activity ever 
since the island was discovered, in the ninth century. 
Hecla, though not the most considerable of these, from 
its position and its former activity, is the best known. 
It has had many formidable eruptions, twenty-two of 
which have been noted in about eight hundred years ; 
and in the same period we have notices of twenty erup- 
tions from five other Icelandic volcanoes. A succession 
of eruptions of Hecla lasted for six years ; but the most 
severe convulsions of that country happened in 1783, 
when the dreadful eruption of the Skaptar Yokul burst 
forth, and did not cease till the following year. About 
a month before this terrible catastrophe, a submarine vol- 
cano elevated the crater of Nyoe, seventy miles south- 
west of Cape Reikianes, and threw out such an immense 
quantity of scorise as to cover the sea, to the distance 
of one hundred and fifty miles, with a stream which im- 
peded the progress of ships making the island ; and 
portions of this eruption floated as far as the Shetland 
and Orkney Islands. Nyoe emitted smoke and scoria 
from several apertures ; but within a year the island 
disappeared, and a shoal marks its former site. On the 
8th of June the Skaptar Yokul threw out smoke ; on 
the 10th an enormous current of molten lava flowed 
from numerous cones on the Yokul, which, dividing into 
two main streams, pursued its course to the sea, filling 
up the beds of two large rivers, and covering an im- 
mense extent of once productive country. The horrors 
of the scene were aggravated by the enormous torrents 
of boiling water produced by the liquefaction of the 
glaciers that covered the Yokul, and by incessant 



120 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

showers of ashes, which darkened the sun ; stream of 
lava succeeded stream from the 10th of June to the end 
of August, at short intervals ; and noxious emanations 
destroyed numbers of those whom fire and water had 
spared. From this calamity Iceland has never recov- 
ered ; for within the space of two years the island, in 
consequence of this eruption, lost nine thousand three 
hundred and thirty-six persons, eleven thousand four 
hundred and sixty head of cattle, twenty-eight thousand 
horses, and one hundred and ninety thousand four hun- 
dred and eighty sheep. The extent of the principal 
stream of lava is fifty miles in length ; its greatest 
breadth is from twelve to fifteen miles ; in the plains its 
general depth is one hundred feet, but in the channel 
of the Skapta River, which it dried up, it is six hundred 
feet in perpendicular depth. The south-western side of 
Iceland appears to be one vast focus of subterranean 
fire ; for the several eruptions of the Orgefa, the Skei- 
dera, Sida, and Skaptar Yokuls, seem but as occasional 
outbreakings from one immense volcanic fissure, which 
really belongs to the same chain of icy mountains." — 
Dr. Traill. 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 121 



SECTION YII. 

ilELATION OF THE ANCIENT AND MODERN OCEAN 
CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 

The fact being admitted that earthquakes, volcanoes, 
and moimtains are caused by the downward tendency 
of the ocean's bed, we shall be led to inquire into the 
detailed effects upon the forms of the land and the sea. 
We shall be curious to ascertain the situation of the 
sea or lake that produced each particular mountain, to 
trace, in the curves and slopes of the mountain ranges, 
the direction of the ocean currents that produced their 
upheaval. 

In this general outline it cannot be expected that I 
shall do more than indicate the course of study and 
observation which must be pursued in future ; but a 
key to physical geography is given when it is ascer- 
tained that all elevations are but the reactions of cor- 
responding depressions ; that Asia, Europe, and North 
America are three elevated and extinct ellipses ; and 
that Africa, South America, Australia, and Greenland 
are portions or fragments of ellipses, or else they are 
interspaces situated between several great ellipses, 
most of which are still continuing their circuits, bear- 
ing in the bosom of their waters the detrital elements 
that, give energy to earthquakes, supply the fires of 
slumbering volcanoes, elevate the surfaces of continents, 
and contract the boundaries of oceans, 
11 



122 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

A few elements of a planet and its orbit being known^ 
astronomers are enabled to determine its whole path, and 
its relations to other orbits with great precision. The 
same appears to be now true of the elements of oceanic 
ellipses, which the forms of the land present to us as 
indications of the entire paths pursued by the currents 
that gave birth to those forms. The sea is poetically 
characterized as the emblem of inconstancy; but the 
laws which govern the movements of the sea are as un- 
changing as gravitation, though they have not hereto- 
fore been understood. It is the land, rather than the 
sea, that, geologically considered, is subject to change ; 
for the ocean currents mould the surface of the earth 
into correspondence and subordination to themselves, 
and pursue a course determined by astronomic forces, 
over which the earth has no essential influence. 

It must be evident that if the principles which I am 
advocating are to be relied upon, the inequalities of 
surface at the bottom of the sea are mere continuations 
and repetitions of those seen upon the dry land ; and 
if the whole ocean could be drained, and then carefully 
surveyed, what we call the dry land would be found to 
be but the segments or highest portions of a regular 
system of reliefs produced by elliptical currents. 

I earnestly hope that by the liberality of our govern- 
ment the ocean depths throughout the world will soon 
be known, so far, at least, as may be necessary for scien- 
tific and practical purposes. When that knowledge is 
obtained, I expect that the islands of the great Pacific 
will be proved to be the tops of mountain ranges, which 
are the borders of definite marine ellipses, analogous 



RELATION OF OCEAN CUKRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 123 

in outline to the mountains of the dry land. It is not 
unreasonable to suppose that then we shall be able to 
predict the elevation of lands and the breaking out of 
volcanoes in regions where nothing of the kind is now 
anticipated. Mankind will then learn to regard such 
movements as but a part of the progressive system of 
nature, dependent, like tempests and thunder storms, 
upon a disturbance of elements which are known, and 
which science can subject to the ordeal of mathematical 
calculation. 

If we look at a curious map of the bed of the At- 
lantic, published by Lieutenant Maury in his " Physical 
Geography of the Sea," we may observe that a sub- 
marine continent is forming in the middle of that vast 
lower region, which, in form, bears a striking resem- 
blance to Italy, and, like that beautiful peninsula, it 
resembles a human leg and foot in its outlines, with its 
sole and heel towards the equator, and its toe pointing 
towards the west. The depressions around it are also 
analogous to the marine basins around Italy. The 
Gulf of Venice, the Bay of Sicily and Naples, and the 
Gulf of Taranto have their analogues here. We may 
also notice its resemblance to New Zealand, and that it 
is literally its antipode, the forms being exactly the 
reverse of each other. 

Are these beautiful analogies meaningless, or do they 
rather speak with the irresistible logic of nature, to 
teach us that similar causes operated to produce similar 
forms ? It is worthy of remark, that the part of the 
Atlantic's bed which must receive the greatest quantity 
of detritus and sediment, instead of being the most 



124 . OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

elevated, is actually the most depressed. Now, since it 
is well known that it is not worn by the currents, it 
must be sunken by its own weight. 

Lieutenant Maury manifests a singular power of ob- 
servation, combined with an admirable sagacity, in the 
following remarks, which I take the liberty to quote 
from his useful and elegant treatise on the Physical 
Geography of the Sea, p. 252. 

" To measure the elevation of the mountain tops 
above the sea, and to lay down upon our maps the 
mountain ranges of the earth, is regarded in geography 
as an important thing, and rightly so. Equally im- 
portant is it in bringing the physical geography of the 
sea regularly within the domain of science, to present 
its orography, by mapping out the bottom of the ocean 
so as to show the depressions of the solid parts of the 
earth's crust there below the sea level. 

" What is to be the use of these deep sea soundings ? 
is a question that often occurs ; and it is as difficult to 
be answered, in categorical terms, as Franklin's ques- 
tion, What is the use of a new-born babe ? Every phys- 
ical fact, every expression of nature, every feature of the 
earth, the work of any and all of those agents which 
make the face of the world what it is, and as we see 
it, is interesting and instructive. Until we get hold of a 
group of physical facts, we do not know what practical 
bearings they may have, though right-minded men know 
that they contain many precious jewels, which science 
or the expert hand of philosophy will not fail to bring 
out, polished, and bright, and beautifully adapted to 
man's purposes. Already we are obtaining practical 



I- 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 125 

answers to this question as to the use of deep sea 
soundings ; for as soon as they were announced to the 
public, they forthwith assumed a practical bearing in 
the minds of men with regard to the question of a 
submarine telegraph across the Atlantic. 

" There is at the bottom of the sea, between Cape 
Race in Newfoundland and Cape Clear in Ireland, a 
remarkable steppe, which is already known as the tel- 
egraphic plateau. 

" There appears to be, corresponding to this elevation 
of the bottom of the sea, a ridge on the land, which 
runs nearly, if not entirely, around the earth. Leaving 
this continent between the parallels of forty-five de- 
grees and fifty degrees north, the British Islands are 
within its range. Passing thence to the continent, we 
recognize it in the great ' divide,' which separates the 
drainage of the Arctic Ocean from the drainage of the 
south. In Asia it rises up into a chain of steppes and 
mountains, extending across that continent from west to 
east, and disappearing on the shores of the Pacific. 
We do not know how it is at the bottom of the 
' Grand Ocean ; ' but the chain of Aleutian Islands, 
rising out of the water midway between Asia and Amer- 
ica, seem to suggest that it is there also. However, 
if we run the eye along to America, we shall perceive 
again, as soon as we come to this continent, indications 
of this ridge, which divides the waters that flow from 
the north from those that seek the ocean in more south- 
ern latitudes." 

The explanation that geonomic principles give to the 
" remarkable steppe '' in the sea and " ridge on the 
11* 



126 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

land," wliicli Lieutenant Maury describes so well, is^ 
that the northern and southern oceans have antagonized 
each other in the northern hemispliere, and produced the 
elevation of the bottom of the sea, and this ridge on 
the land betweeen them, which " runs nearly, if not en- 
tirely, around the earth," parallel with the Polar Sea, 
and also with the ancient sea that formerly washed the 
southern side of the annular ridge. Geonomy requires 
that there should be a predominance of east and west 
elevations and ridges near the equator and near the 
poles ; but between these two annular ridges there should 
be a succession of north and south elevations. Geog- 
raphy demonstrates that the elevations actually exist in 
accordance with the requirements of this law. 

In looking at the map of the world we find that all 
the large level plains are in the middle of ellipses, or 
they are between ellipses ; in other words, they are in 
situations where the circulation of the currents could 
not produce subsidences and elevations : thus, Asia 
constitutes a great circular basin, the southern and east- 
ern edges of which are elevated into a series of enor- 
mous, nearly parallel ridges, which correspond in direc- 
tion with the course which the ocean currents must have 
pursued when the land was the ocean's bed, and was 
gradually rising. It is evident that these mountain 
ranges were produced by a series of subsidences, which 
commenced at the Altai, and proceeded southward to 
the Himalaya, continually increasing in height as they 
proceeded. 

" The most ancient chains are the least elevated ; 
while the colossal grandeur of the Andes and the Him- 



RELATION OP OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 127 

alaya bear the traces of an upheaval comparatively very 
• recent. In America, from the coasts of Brazil to the 
high table lands of Bolivia, and from the Atlantic 
shores to the Rocky Mountains ; in Europe, from the 
mountains of Scandinavia to the summit of the Alps, we 
meet with upheavings successively less ancient." — 
Professor Guyot's Earth and Man. 

On the north side of the basin there is a series of 
low elevations which have an east and west direction ; 
but they are so low, so barren and cold, that they have 
scarcely been noticed by geographers. They are low 
because they have been produced by seas that are of 
limited dimensions, when compared with the vast areas 
of the Pacific and the Indian Oceans. 

On the western side is a range of mountains which 
extend from the Caspian Sea to Nova Zembla, a distance 
of seventeen hundred miles, in a north and south direc- 
tion generally, but curving to the west at the southern 
extremity of the chain, and to the east at the northern 
extremity. This is the Oural chain, which divides the 
Asiatic basin from the European. Between four sys- 
tems of elevation, namely, the Aldan Mountains on the 
east, the Altai on the south, the Oural on the west, and 
the Arctic shore on the north, is a vast level plain — 
the largest in the world. Why should it not be level? 
No currents have ever crossed it to deposit layers and 
strata of sediment, the weight of which could break the 
earth's crust. The currents circulated around it, and 
left its surface unbroken. 

Look now at the European basin, and observe how 
analogous it is to that of Asia ; yet in some details how 



128 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

different and diminutive ! Instead of the Aldan Moun- 
tains on its eastern border, it has the Oural ; instead of • 
the Himalaya and Hindoo Kosh on the south, it has the 
Caucasus and the Carpathians ; instead of the Chinese^ 
Bengal, and Arabian Seas, and the peninsulas of Siam, 
India, and Arabia, it has the deep basins of the Caspian^ 
the Euxine, and the Eastern Mediterranean, with the 
peninsulas of Asia Minor, Greece, and Italy. Instead 
of having the Ourals on the western border, Europe has 
the Scandinavians. Spain, France, and Great Britain 
belong to the North Atlantic basin, and not to the Eu- 
ropean. This is evident from the directions of their 
mountains, and their correspondence with the easteria 
segments of the North Atlantic ellipse. But let us re- 
turn to view the European basin, which, like Asia, has a 
succession of nearly parallel ridges on its southern bor- 
der, but is bounded east and west by simple north and 
south ranges. Like Asia, its greatest elevation is at the 
south, and declines gradually to the Frozen Ocean. ^ 
The North Sea and the Baltic are the depressed por- 
tions of the European basin. So the Aral Sea and the 
Caspian are the most depressed parts of Asia. The 
great plain of Asia is between the ranges of the Oural, 
the Altai, and the Aldan. So the great plain of Eu- 
rope is between the Scandinavian, the Carpathian, and 
the Oural ; except the trifling elevation of the Yaldai, 
there is nothing to indicate a rupture of the earth's 
crust in this vast interior of the European ellipse. All 
around it the crust is broken up like the ground in a 
circus ring. 
The Mediterranean and Caspian Seas were formerly 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 129 

the channel of the European ellipse, and though the 
influence of the large oceans has elevated the land all 
around them, they still continue to accumulate detritus 
and sediment, and to sink deeper, while the countries in 
the vicinity are kept in constant dread of the earth- 
quakes and volcanoes which the reaction of their sub- 
sidences produce. In the same manner the Mexican 
and Caribbean Seas, though gradually narrowing and 
closing, do not abandon the ground without a struggle, 
which is attested by the numerous volcanoes that encir- 
cle its basins, and the dreadful earthquakes that dev?is- 
tate its shores. In the East Indies the same principles 
are illustrated in a still more powerful manner by the 
circle of volcanic fire that is drawn around the ellipti- 
cal channels near the East Indian islands. The law 
seems to be, that the channels shall continue to sink as 
long as they can obtain sediment enough- to break the 
crust ; and it will be broken the more easily for being 
frequently ruptured ; but between the channels the land 
may rise to maintain the equilibrium. 

There is a peculiarity in the region of the Caspian and 
Aral Seas that is finely illustrative of the geonomic 
theory, which is, that the surface of the land is below 
the surface level of the surrounding seas. It seems 
that the oceans have caused the elevation of the land 
around the basin, and cut it off from all communication 
with the open sea. Being in a temperate climate, the wa- 
ter which was thus left enclosed by elevations has been 
evaporated away, except that which is now found in the 
Aral and Caspian Seas, and a number of small 
lakes. It is said that earthquakes frequently disturb 



130 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

this region. Why, then, do they not elevate it at least 
to a level with the ocean ? The answer is, that subsi- 
dence is the only means of elevation, and of course that 
cannot elevate the lowest place. To accomplish the ele- 
vation of the Caspian or the Meditei-ranean, a " lower 
deep " must be made, to crowd the lava beneath the 
crust on which the Caspian rests. Instead of the Cas- 
pian rising-, it is probably sinking, and thus raising the 
land around it^ producing slight earthquakes as it 
does so. 

The Adriatic and the Euxine have, like the Mediter- 
ranean, been for a long time sinking in the same man- 
ner, and occasionally causing elevations and eruptions 
which have given birth to the Apennines, the Alps, 
the Taurus, the Balkan, and Caucasian Mountains* 
We know but little of Africa ; but what we do know 
tends to show that its creation and elevation is compar- 
atively modern. The probability is, that at the time 
that the mountains around the Mediterranean were ele- 
vated above the surface of the ocean, most of Africa 
was at the bottom of the sea. If Africa had not risen 
and limited the area of the Mediterranean, the moun- 
tains of Southern Europe would have been higher than 
the Himalaya. Arabia appears to be an inter-land, 
which i& nearly level from the want of a large ocean on 
any of its borders. When any land is surrounded by 
seas which are nearly of equal size, it must necessarily 
be almost a level country ; though, if the seas are large, 
it may be elevated into a level table land. 

The North American basin is formed on the same 
principles as Asia and Europe. It has three oceans. 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 131 

and three correspondiug systems of elevations on its 
borders — the Appalachians and Ozark on the east, the 
Eocky on the west, and the low Lawrentine range on 
the north. Between these three, in the interior, is the 
vast level plain called the great valley of the Mississippi. 
* North America differs from Asia in the fact that the 
abrupt declivities are on the western side in America, 
and on the eastern in Asia ; but otherwise it greatly re- 
sembles it. 

Greenland, South America, Africa, and Australia are 
four continental areas of land, which are not, and never 
were ellipses, but are situated between them. Green- 
land is between three seas, the Arctic, the North At- 
lantic, and Baffin's Bay, which is really a sea. South 
America is between the North Atlantic, the South At- 
lantic, and the South Pacific ; Africa between the North 
Atlantic and Mediterranean, the South Atlantic, the In- 
dian Ocean, and the Red Sea. 

Australia is situated between the Indian Ocean and 
the Java Sea on the west and north, the North Pacific 
on the north-east, the New Zealand Sea and South Pa- 
cific on the south-east, and a small oceanic ellipse which 
I will call the Tasmanian, on the south. The most im- 
portant fact to be noticed in relation to ^hese inter- 
lands is, that they are, without exception, the most ele- 
vated on the side which borders upon the largest ocean. 
Thus Australia, Africa, and Greenland are most elevat- 
ed on their eastern sides, and South America on the west- 
ern. Australia is the least elevated on the south ; Af- 
rica and South America on the north. 

What are called the trade winds blow from near the 



132 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

thirtieth degree of latitude to the equator, in a western 
direction, and carry with them the moisture which pro- 
duces fertility. Those lands, therefore, which have 
their largest ocean', and consequently their highest lands, 
on the eastern border, as Australia, Africa, and Asia have, 
will have large barren deserts in their western parts-; 
but those lands which, like South America, have the 
largest ocean on the western borders, will have their 
larger mountains on their western border also ; so that 
the moist winds from the south-east will pass over the 
larger part of the land before they reach the mountains, 
and are arrested and robbed of their fertilizing moist- 
ure. This is the reason of the smallness of the deserts 
in South America, compared with those of other coun- 
tries. 

In the extreme southern part of the southern ellipses 
there is so little known of the submarine forms, that we 
are left almost entirely to conjecture from analogy. I 
presume that the Lagullas bank, which is a submarine 
plateau south-east of Good Hope, is an inter-elliptic ele- 
vation analogous to the banks of Newfoundland. 1 also 
regard the islands at the south-east of Patagonia as of 
the same character, and as indicating the eastern course 
of the current there. 

It is remarked by many physical geographers that 
the principal mountains of the eastern continent run 
east and west, and of the American continent north and 
south. This is true if we confine our observations to 
the higher class of elevations, and to the dry land ; 
but if we view the matter 'philosophically, and consider 
the submarine rid2:es and elevations as continuations of 



1 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 133 

tlTOse above the surface of the sea, we must conclude 
that the prevalence of ranges of mountains in any one 
particular direction is only apparent. 

The extraordinary elevation of the lands of the old 
continent is owing to the fact that the great Indian 
Ocean bathes the southern shores of Asia, and by its 

subsidences causes the elevation of the mountain!^ in 

« 

an east and west direction ; whereas, in America, the 
great Pacific Ocean, both north and south, bathes the 
western shores for eight thousand miles, and produces 
abrupt slopes and high mountains continuously the 
whole distance. 

It must also be remarked that Asia and Europe are 
united at the Oural Mountains, so as to bring two 
drained ellipses together, and make the continent con- 
tinuous from Kamschatka west to Iceland, a distance 
which extends nearly half round the earth, at the 
arctic circle. This union of Asia and Europe gives an 
appearance of great extension in an eastern and west- 
ern direction. The fact, also, that the Indian Ocean 
and the Mediterranean combine to elevate the land on 
the south produces the appearances that are peculiar to 
the eastern continent, and which have hitherto remained 
without an explanation. 

The rule appears to be, that the directions of the cur- 
rents determine, in all cases, the directions of the 
mountains ; and the size of the contiguous ocean, all 
else equal, determines the size of the mountains. The 
condition of " all else equal " must be continually borne 
in mind, for it is not in reality the ocean itself directly 
that produces the elevation of the mountains, but the 
12 



134 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

detritus which the ocean gathers from its shores and 
its bed, and deposits in different quantities in different 
places, according to circumstances. In some places, as 
in the Mediterranean, for instance, the subsidence has 
been very great, in consequence not so much of the 
present size of the sea, as the concentration of deposits 
in tine great sink. 

If we adopt the idea of Professor Guyot, that Italy 
and Cape Bon together may be considered as equiva- 
lent or analogous to the Central American isthmus, 
then we may regard the great circle of the Alps as the 
former shores of a basin analogous in form and position 
to the Gulf of Mexico. The peculiar forms and curves 
of the Alps are thus accounted for. We must not allow 
ourselves to be misled by the great elevation of the 
Alps compared with the shores of the Mexican Gulf, for 
the degree of elevation has nothing to do with the form 
of a country. 

I have no doubt that Fremont's Basin was once as 
low as the Gulf of Mexico, and performed a similar 
function. The same may be said of the Himalayas and 
the plateau of Tibet. They both were once basins, 
and constituted the turning points of ancient elliptical 
currents, and were gradually filled, abandoned, and 
elevated by the action of the powerful oceans around 
them. The Gulf of Mexico is going through the same 
process ; the time will come when Florida will have 
mountains like those of Greece, and Texas will have 
Alps more exalted than those of Switzerland. Then 
will the valley of the Mississippi be a desert, and the 
plains of Kansas and Nebraska rival the frozen steppes 
of Siberia. 



RELATION OP OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 135 

TTe observe, in looking at a map of the world, that 
there are three analogous southern continents, namely, 
Africa, South America, and Australia. It is near the 
northern borders of these that the greatest number of 
volcanoes are found, in the vicinity of three isthmuses, 
— one of which is submarine, — that unite them with 
the three northern continents, frodf which they are par- 
tially separated by three archipelagoes. In other 
words, there are three pairs of continents, and in each 
pair the region which is most volcanic is that which is 
intermediate, and is occupied by an archipelago. 

Let us notice, that next to the three tropical inter- 
continental archipelagoes, in volcanic and geonomical 
importance, are the two arctic archipelagoes, which 
are also inter-continental : one, the Iceland and Faroe, 
is between Europe and America, and the other, the 
Aleutian, between Asia and America. They occupy 
the only situations of importance where the inter-con- 
tinental currents turn from the arctic to go southward. 
It must be remarked that they have their analogues in 
the antarctic region, where Mount Terror and Mount 
Erebus illuminate the regions of eteAal winter, and 
where the southern ellipses turn to carry cooling 
streams to the tropics. 

The rocky ridges, which are found to run parallel 
to most large rivers and lakes, were doubtless caused 
by the sinking of their beds while they were ocean 
channels. The fact pointed out by Professor H. P. 
Rogers, that the Appalachian chain is divisible into 
eleven groups, each of wliich is composed of a succes- 
sion of mountains, of various dimensions, but all more 



136 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

nearly parallel to each other than to those of other 
groups in the chain, is perfectly consistent with the 
theory of their origin which I am advancing, and I 
think that it will be found that each group or section 
of the great Appalachian chain, however much it may 
differ from the other groups in direction, is generally 
parallel, or nearly s<P, with the nearest ocean shore and 
channel. In other words, the whole chain of moun- 
tains is generally nearly parallel with the whole coast 
line, and each group of the chain is nearly parallel with 
the part of the coast line nearest to it. 

The Gulf of Mexico and the mountains of Central 
America afford a good illustration of the production 
of elevations in conformity with currents. The form 
of the gulf is precisely such as the action of currents 
of water would naturally create, and yet we find it sur- 
rounded by mountains which water could not produce, 
except by the weight of detritus- and the reaction of 
gravitation. If we look at such a place as Cape Cod, 
and its ba}^, which is formed entirely of sand, scooped 
out, as it were, by water power, and then compare the 
Gulf of Mexico »with it, we shall perceive that they 
both appear to be formed on the same plan, and by the 
same aqueous causes, with this difference, that after the 
Mexican Gulf was laid out, and its shores as far 
advanced towards completion as Cape Cod is now, 
the subsidence of its bed raised a number of ridges 
of rocky heights along its shores and around its basin. 
No other conceivable force would be likely to raise 
mountain chains in such curves as to correspond with a 
water-made bay. 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 187 

We shall find, upon a correct application of geonomic 
principles, that the form of the gulf and the direction 
of the mountains around it in Yucatan, the isthmus, 
Cuba, and Mexico, are the results of depressions pro- 
duced by the detritus that has been so long pouring 
into that great focus of the Atlantic currents. The 
modern volcanoes that have arisen in this region will 
probably be hereafter proved to be but a continuation 
of a system of geonomic reactions, which commenced in 
the beginning of terrestrial time. It will be found 
that all the short curved or elliptical ranges of moun- 
tains, in the interior of the continents, are now, or 
once were, the borders of bays, lakes, or inland seas ; 
while the long, nearly straight ranges, like the Andes, 
were produced by the main channel, which constitutes 
the long side of some great ellipse. 

Nearly all peninsulas are formed upon one principle, 
by the opposition of two currents, one of which is forced 
to turn out of its course and in some degree turn back 
and double on itself.* Accordingly, w^e find peninsulas 
most developed where currents turn and encounter other 
currents ; thus Alaska seems to be formed by the cur- 
rent throuo^h Behrino^'s Strait into the Pacific, beins; 
turned or reflected south-west towards the eastern shore 
of Asia. Lower California appears to be formed by 
the current from the south, being driven in shore by 

* The tendency of the land to assume a peninsular form is very remark- 
able, and it is still more so that almost all the peninsulas tend to the south 
— circumstances that depend upon some unkno\A-n cause, which seems to 
have acted very extensively. — Mrs. Somerville. * 

" 12 * 



138 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

the current from the north, which moves along the west- 
ern shore of the peninsula. 

The peninsula of Kamschatka was formerly an island, 
between which and the main land the waters once flowed ; 
but now, the channel being obstructed, the water enters 
and makes a circuit, and proceeds on towards Alaska. 
The Japan Isles are going through the same process, 
and are doubtless destined to become a peninsula with 
a large gulf, through which a sub-ellipse wall circulate. 
The Corea is formed on the same principle as Florida, 
and the Yellow Sea is like the Gulf of Mexico. The 
Gulf of Tonquin is still more like that of Mexico, with its 
islands and its peninsula to represent Cuba and Florida. 
The Gulf of Siam depends upon the same causes, and 
when the peninsula of Malacca was an island, the re- 
semblance to the Gulf of Mexico was perfect. 

Leopold von Buch has given a chart, which has been 
copied and approved by Sir Charles Lyell, showing the 
tract or band visited by earthquakes and illuminated 
by volcanoes among the Molucca and Sunda Islands, be- 
tween Australia and Asia. And I would call especial 
attention to its remarkable agreement with my views 
of the causes of earthquakes. The band, according to 
the chart, is parallel to the tract of the ocean currents, 
as indicated by Lieutenant Maury. From Barren Isl- 
and, in the Bay of Bengal, it passes to Sumatra, Java, 
New Guinea, and thence to the Philippine Islands, ex- 
actly parallel with the current which proceeds from the 
Bay of Bengal to Behring's Strait. (See LyelFs Ge- 

A similars volcanic band, or half ellipse, may be de- 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 139 

scribed as running parallel with the current which cir- 
culates in the Mexican and Caribbean Archipelago, in- 
cluding within its borders Guadaloupe, Caraccas, Nica- 
ragua, and Mexico. 

It is evident that a similar half ellipse once existed 
in the Mediterranean region ; and one certainly does 
now in the Aleutian group, including Alaska and 
Mount St. Elias. Another exists in the Iceland and 
Faroe Islands. If we draw a line from the south of 
Greenland, which is said to be slowly sinking, to Ice- 
land, and the Faroes, and the north of Scandinavia, 
which is gradually rising, and thence to the south of 
Scandinavia, which is also said to be sinking, we shall 
trace another arc of an ellipse which is probably anal- 
ogous to the others already described. 

The volcanic band copied by Mr. Lyell is exactly in 
the place of the southern apsis, or first segment of the 
North-western Pacific ellipse. The Aleutian volcanic 
band occupies the place of the other or northern apsis. 
So, also, the two volcanic bands of Mexi(!o and Iceland 
are in the places of the apsides of the North Atlantic 
ellipse. 

That the continents are in some places gradually 
rising, is now generally admitted ; and the only theoret- 
ical explanation of the fact that has been suggested, 
within my knowledge, is, that it is owing to the con- 
traction of certain parts of the earth, in consequence of 
the gradual radiation of heat. I will not discuss this 
theory, but content myself with proposing another, which 
seems to me much more reasonable, which is, that the 
oceanic basins are in many places quietly and imper^ 



140 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

ceptibly, but progressively, sinking, on account of the 
accumulation of sediment in their beds : in consequence 
of this depression, the lava is pushed up under the 
neighboring continents with a force equal to the weight 
of the sinking mass; this causes a part or the whole of 
a continent to rise with a rapidity equal to that of the 
accumulation of sediment. In some parts of the ocean's 
bed, and particularly in the courses of the principal cur- 
rents, the sediment is deposited so much more copiously 
than in other places, that the crust of the earth becomes 
locally fractured by the unequal weights that press upon 
it. This causes sudden local subsidences, which usually 
take place in lines parallel with the currents. Isolated 
volcanoes are probably caused by extraordinary and 
special accumulations in limited spaces, which pro- 
duce great local depressions and corresponding ele- 
vations.* 

The attention of mankind was first attracted by sin- 
gle^ volcanoes ; next it was observed that they generally 
occur in lines, and that they seem to alternate in ac- 
tion, as if they are so connected below that they arc 
capable of mutually relieving each other. It was also 
observed that all mountains appear to be of volcanic 
origin. Finally, it was ascertained that extensive coun- 
tries, and even continents, have risen, while oceans have 
grown deeper, without any perceptible cause. 

The Baron Humboldt, with very great labor, deter- 

* However natural it may be that the force of running water in numer- 
ous vallej's should be spent, it is by no means so easy to explain why the 
violence of the earthquake and the fire of the volcano should also have be- 
come locally extinct at successive periods, — Lyell. 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 141 

mined as near as practicable the height of the several 
continents. The following are his results : — 

Mean Elevation. 

Europe, 671 feet. 

Asia, 1151 " 

North America, .... 748 " 
South America, . . . . 1132 " 
In order to determine how much the lands altogether 
have risen, we must first calculate how deep the ocean 
was when it was universal and uniform. This cannot 
be estimated with any thing like accuracj^, until the 
present depths of the ocean are measured in a great 
many places. We may doubtless be safe in assuming 
that the ocean has varied as far from a uniform depth 
as the land has from a uniform height above the level 
of the bottom of the primitive ocean. 

If the water was once uniformly a mile in depth over 
the whole earth, the ocean's bed may have risen a mile 
in one place and sunk a mile in another place, without 
raising any land above the ocean's level. Now, as the 
lands are on an average one thousand and eight feet above 
the level of the ocean, they must have risen that much, 
besides rising from their ancient beds to the surface. 

From this it does not follow that the depths of the 
ocean in any one place must be greater than the eleva- 
tion of the land in any place, for the lava which is dis- 
placed from beneath a very large superficial area beneath 
the ocean may have been forced up into ridges and penin- 
sulas, which are very high and narrow ; but it does fol- 
low that the same quantity of lava by cubic measure is 
elevated, which is displaced by depression. 



142 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

If we view the great liemispberical circle of conti- 
nents that extend from Behring's Strait south-west 
through the tropics, and then north-west to Behring^s 
Strait again, we shall perceive that it is divided into 
an eastern and a western portion by the North Atlantic, 
which runs through it like a vast river whose banks are 
nearly parallel. We shall see that the southern points 
of Africa and Soath America are two great capes con- 
stituting the mouth of the Atlantic River, Africa being 
the eastern, and South America the western cape. 

The inland seas of the two continents are subordinate 
streams to the Atlantic ; thus, in the eastern continent 
we have the White Sea, the Baltic, and the Mediterra- 
nean, with its dependencies. In the western we have 
the Gulfs of Mexico and St. Lawrence, Baffin's and 
Hudson's Bays. All these communicate with the At- 
lantic. It is through the medium of the Atlantic that 
the north and south polar seas communicate with each 
other. In this view it may be regarded as a sound or 
strait, running north and south from the arctic to the 
antarctic. 

If we make a map of the world on Mercator's pro- 
jection, extending from Behring's Strait, west to Behr- 
ing's again, and a little beyond, so as to include the 
eastern coast of Asia, and present a view of the Pacific 
as a connected whole at the west end of the map, we 
shall be able to represent all the ellipses, and illustrate 
many of the general principles of geonomy by its 
means. It will be observed that on this map all the 
principal lands in the northern hemisphere are included 
in a semicircle which extends from Behring's Strait to 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 143 

the tropic of Cancer, and then west to Mexico, and 
thence to Behring's Strait again. If we then continue 
the line east through the north polar sea to Behring's 
Strait once more, we shall have completed avast ellipse, 
which includes all the lands of the northern hemisphere. 
This grand hemispherical ellipse appears to be divided 
into live smaller ellipses, which, being named in their 
order from Behring's Strait west, are, 1. The Asiatic ; 
2. The European; 3. The North Atlantic; 4. The 
North American ; 5. The North-west American. 

If we study the lands in the southern hemisphere, we 
shall find them to be mere points projecting from the 
southern border of the grand northern hemispherical 
ellipse, like points or projections on the border of a 
lady's cape which is scalloped or notched. Each of 
these southern points, or peninsulas, is situated between 
southern and northern ellipses, and in no instance does 
one of them constitute an ellipse of itself ; indeed, 
there are no drained ellipses in the southern hemi- 
sphere, but only parts of the borders of such el- 
lipses. 

It may be noticed that the inland waters or lakes of 
the northern continents are arranged in a semicircle, 
or, rather, a curve, which corresponds in a remarkable 
manner with the polar circle, and with the outline of the 
lands of the northern hemisphere ; so much so that they 
may be said to be nearly parallel with them. Thus, 
commencing at Lake Baikal, in Asia, and proceeding 
tlirough the smaller lakes to tlie Aral and Caspian, the 
Black and the Mediterranean Seas, then across the 
Atlantic to the Ontario, Erie, Michigan, Superior, Win- 



144 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

ipeg, and Slave Lakes, we shall find that we have 
described a curve which corresponds with, and is nearly 
parallel with, the northern and with the southern shores 
or borders of the lands of the northern hemisphere. 
These inland waters generally have their greatest ex- 
tension north and south, and their shores are generally 
curved just as the mountains are, to conform to the 
normal directions of the currents that run between the 
polar and tropical regions. 

We shall probably be justified if we view the conti- 
nental semicircle from Behring to Behring as marking 
the former bounds of the ancient northern sea, of which 
the Frozen Ocean and the North Atlantic are the rem- 
nants. We may believe that a time existed when the 
Asiatic, European, and North American basins were oc- 
cupied by water and bounded by chains of islands which 
have since been elevated to constitute the two great 
chains of mountains that distinguish the eastern and 
western continents. During the progress of the lands 
to their present elevations, there must have been a 
period when there were numerous outlets from the Arc- 
tic Ocean to the tropics. Perhaps the southern penin- 
sulas of Asia may be regarded as marking the places 
of some of those outlets, just as the African and South 
American points now mark the southern extremity of 
the Atlantic. Perhaps we may look upon the peninsu- 
las of Alaska, Kamschatka, Chin India, Hindostan, and 
Arabia, as points, or headlands, from whence the an- 
cient Asiatic sea found outlets, before the chain of 
mountains was elevated in the eastern and southern 
parts of Asia ; and we may regard the circle of inland 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 145 

seas and lakes as remnants of tlie ancient channels which 
the ocean made in communicating with the tropics. 



THE THERMAL EQUATOR. 

The extreme eastern points of South America, x)f Af- 
rica, and of Australia, are not only analogous in form, 
but in function. Each is a dividing point, where the 
westward equatorial currents of the two hemispheres, 
after having run a certain distance together parallel 
with the equator, separate, one to flow north and the 
other south. Perhaps it would be more correct to say 
that the three points were formed originally by the 
separation of the currents at these places. 

The question then arises, Why are not the eastern 
points of these three southern inter-lands all arranged 
precisely at the equator, or in one line parallel with the 
equator ? Why is the eastern point of Australia about 
thirty degrees south of the equator, that of Africa about 
ten north, and of South America about six degrees south ? 

The answer to this question involves an explanation 
of the isothermal lines, and is a rather complicated 
matter. I shall therefore only touch upon it generally. 
It is commonly assumed that the difference in the lines 
of equal temperature depends upon the relative posi- 
tions and heights of land and sea ; but if the lands were 
put into their present places by the action of the water, 
how has it happened that they are placed so differently 
with reference to the equator ? In other words, why 
did not the creative currents operate in the same line, 
instead of producing two of the eastern points, Africa^ 
13 



146 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

and Australia, thirty-five degrees apart, and the third, 
South America, intermediate ? Does not the answer to 
this question involve another still more curious, namely, 
which of the three southern continents were elevated 
first ? which second, and third ? 

Let. us assume that a portion of Asia and Africa 
were the first lands to rise above the surface of the sea. 
"What effect would their elevation have upon the ther- 
mal equilibrium of the earth ? There is no doubt that 
it would be to increase the warmth of the northern hemi- 
sphere at the expense of the southern ; and the conse- 
quence would be, that an efi'ort (so to speak) would be 
made by the air and water to restore the thermal bal- 
ance. To accomplish this, the winds and currents would 
swerve over the mid-line into the colder southern hem- 
isphere, and meet the currents from the antarctic about 
six degrees south of the equator. At the location of 
Cape St. Roque, the two currents would again part, and 
return, each to its own proper hemisphere, one along 
the eastern coast of South America, and the other to 
the Gulf of Mexico, and then along the eastern coast 
of North America. 

Having thus briefly accounted for the position of 
the eastern point of South America south of the equa- 
tor, we must further inquire how the eastern point of 
Australia came to be still farther south. 

Let us assume — what will probably not be ques- 
tioned by any geologist — that all the other continents 
were elevated before Australia was : the thermal equi- 
librium was then farther from a balance than ever, and 
the winds and waters were necessarily driven still farther 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 147 

to the south, to disburse the excess of heat which north- 
ern lands radiated from their extensive surfaces. Under 
these circumstances, the currents of wind and water 
from the north would be likely to run, and doubtless 
did run, over into the southern hemisphere, as far as the 
thirtieth degree of latitude, before they were antago- 
nized and arrested by the cold antarctic waters, so as 
to be brought into a state of equilibrium. At the 
point where these waters again parted, the most eastern 
mountains of Australia were formed. 

The current which flows to the south from the eastern 
point of Australia probably enters the Antarctic Sea 
near Victoria Land, and returns to the equator through 
the South Pacific. The current that flows to the north 
of the eastern point of Australia is better known, for it 
has made a deep impression upon the ocean's bed, and 
raised a series of mural monuments to indicate its path 
— the north-eastern shore of Australia, the islands of 
Java and Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and New Guinea, 
the peninsulas of India, Siam, and Malacca, — these are 
the offspring of this mighty current, and their moun- 
tains are parallel to its course. 

This hypothesis has the merit of accounting for the 
gradually increasing advance to the south of the eastern 
and southern points of land, successively, from India to 
Africa, South America, and Australia. 

THERMAL TROPICS. 

If there are three eastern points where the equatorial 
currents originally divided and separated into two 



148 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

branches, one of which moved towards the north-west, 
and the other towards the south-west, the question is, 
Are there two corresponding points in the two hemi- 
spheres where the two currents turned from the north 
and south-west, and moved towards the north and south- 
east ? Looking at the eastern coast of the Americas, 
the forms of the land give a ready answer ; for Cape 
Horn and Yucatan are evidently the two turning points, 
nearly equidistant from the Cape St. Roque. The east- 
ern coast of North America shows plainly the direction 
to the north-east taken by the current from the Gulf of 
Mexico ; and we are safe in assuming that an analogous 
current flows south-east from Cape Horn, the effects of 
which will yet be learned by deep sea soundings, which 
I hope Lieutenant Maury will be authorized to make. 
From the most eastern point of Africa we see plainly 
marked the track of the two currents, one to the south- 
west, through the Mozambique Channel, between Mada- 
gascar and Africa, and the other through the Red Sea 
to the north-west. An interesting question now is. 
Where are the corresponding points where these two 
currents turn to move eastwardly? There is a noted 
Submarine plateau south of Madagascar, called the La- 
gullas bank, which rises suddenly above the bed of the 
ocean several thousand feet, and I have no doubt that 
this will prove to be the turning point which marks the 
path to the south-east taken by this southern branch of 
the African current. The northern branch moves 
along the Red Sea to the Isthmus of Suez : no one 
doubts that it once flowed through the Mediterranean ; 
but where was its turning point to the north-m^^ ? 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 149 

The answer is found, in the Black Sea, the Caspian, and 
the Oural Mountains. On the Asiatic coast the Bay of 
Bengal is the turning point, but the Tasmanian region 
is unexplored. 

OF THE MAGNETIC NEEDLE. 

The magnetic needle, instead of always pointing north 
and south, varies to the east or to the west. It does so 
much more in some places than in others, and in differ- 
ent degrees in the same place at different times. The 
causes or law of this variation are unknown. Captain 
Sabine noticed that the compass needle varies in a 
manner which indicates a tendency to conform to the 
directions of the mountain ranges. 

I have lately been struck with the correspondence 
between the curves of magnetic variation as indicated 
on the map of the world, and the elliptical curves of 
the ocean currents when marked on the same map. 
The correspondence is so remarkable, that there must 
be some connection between the phenomena. Is it 
because the submarine mountains agree in their direc- 
tion with the currents, and also because the needle is 
influenced by the largest and nearest masses of land ? 
or is it owing to the thermal influences of both moun- 
tains and currents upon the magnetic forces? The 
latter seems to me the more probable. 

I have now before me " A Chart of the Magnetic 
Curves of equal Variation," by Peter Barlow, Esq., 
London, in which the curves on the west of Africa and 
Europe are identical with the curves of the ocean cur- 
rents in the same places ; one set of lines proceeding 
13^ 



150 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

from the arctic and another from the antarctic, and 
the two meeting at the Canary Islands, and crossing 
the Atlantic together to the American coast. In the 
South Pacific the magnetic curves are represented as 
forming an ellipse, which embraces the whole ocean 
in a manner identical with that in which I have, in 
the diagram map, represented the ocean currents as 
running. 

So, also, in the region between Australia and Asia, 
the magnetic curves are identical with the curves of 
the currents as marked on the diagram map. The same 
is true concerning the curves parallel with the eastern 
coasts of Asia and of Australia. 

Again, two magnetic ellipses impinge upon each 
other near the Sandwich. Islands ; the principal part 
of one ellipse being in the South, and of the other in 
the North Pacific ; just as are the two elliptic currents 
of water in the same places, as represented in the dia- 
gram map. The hypothesis which I would propose to 
account for the variations of the magnetic needle is the 
following : — 

The rotation of the earth causes a current of thermo- 
electricity to move with the sun around the earth con- 
tinually. Any magnet, like the compass needle, always 
assumes a position at right angles to a current of elec- 
tricity. This theory is generally adopted, and it ex- 
plains the pointing of the needle north and south. To 
this I would add that the inequalities of the ocean and 
the land cause vaiiations of the thermo-electric current, 
and of course produce corresponding variations of the 
compass. On the land the variations correspond with 



RELATION OF OCEAN CURRENTS TO GEOGRAPHY. 151 

the mountains and large masses of cold lands. On the 
water they correspond with the great currents, and 
they are parallel with the submarine mountains. 

According to this theory, if the crust of the earth 
was uniform and level in all its parts, there would be 
no variation of the magnetic needle, and if the inequali- 
ties of the earth were all well understood, — the sub- 
marine mountains and valleys, the currents of all the 
oceans, and the elevations of all the lands, — the varia- 
tions of the needle would be found to correspond with 
them, and could therefore be reduced to known laws 
and practical rules. 

If I am not greatly mistaken, important practical 
results may be obtained by following up this observa- 
tion of the relation which unquestionably exists between 
the currents, the mountains, and the needle. It is pos- 
sible that not only the causes of the magnetic variations 
may be demonstrated, but the compass needle may be 
used as an indicator of the directions or forces of the 
currents in places where they flow unseen. It may also, 
perhaps, become an index of the degree of variation of 
tbe crust of the earth from uniformity of thickness or 
of temperature. 

Note. Dip of the Needle. — Some experiments witk eoils of wire, which 
I have tried within a few days in illustration of theoretical views, have in- 
duced me to regard the dip of the magnetic needle as but a modified man- 
ifestation of the same principle as that which causes it to point north and 
south, namely, a tendency to balance itself at right angles to the predom- 
inant current of magnetic force. Magnetic poles appear to be centres or 
axes of thermo-electric circles. The thermal inequalities near the surface 
of the earth seem to give a tendency to increase the number of magnetic 
circles, axes, and poles. 



152 . OUTLINES OP GEQNOMY, 



SECTION YIII. 



1 



RELATION OF THE EARTH'S CRUST TO THE LIQUID OCEAN" 
OF METAL BELOW, AND THE WATERY OCEAN AND THE 
ATMOSPHERE ABOVE. 

The earth is surrounded by an atmosphere which 
modifies and refracts the rays of light. It also pos- 
sesses oceans of water that refract the rays still more 
in their passage to its depths. But astronomers have 
concluded that the moon is nearly or quite destitute 
of an atmosphere, from the fact that light seems to 
be refracted but little, if any, when reflected from its 
surface. The telescope demonstrates that the moon has 
no large bodies of water ; yet the existence of moun- 
tains in the moon is placed beyond all question, and 
: their forms, sizes, and relatiye positions are determined 
with approximate accuracy. Observations made upon 
Yenus and Mars prove that they have atmospheres, 
mountains, and snov/-clad polar regions, and of course 
oceans of water, as the earth has. The moon, there- 
fore, appears at first sight to be an exception and ao 
anomaly.* 

* " Not a drop of water, or of any fluid akin to it, is now in the moon. 
Besides, there are no clonds ; and as the moon has a small atmosphere, 
this alone is decisive ; for othenvise vapors would float there, and the purity 
of the disk appear variable. The question whether water has been there, — 
whether in the history of that globe, in the course of its growth and revo- 
lutions, the epoch of water, or of fluidity in general, has not come or is 
passed, — is of more difficult solution." — Pkof. Nichols, 0?i the Solar 
System. 



RELATION OF THE CONSTITUENTS OP THE GLOBE. 158 

It is utterly improbable, a priori, that the moon is 
governed by different laws from those which regulate 
the constitutions of other planets ; we are therefore led 
to inquire whether there is not a process going on in 
this earth which is gradually tending to the final de- 
struction of its ocean and atmosphere, though it may 
leave its mountains higher and its valleys deeper than 
they are now, thus reducing it to the same condition as 
the moon. 

The elementary or ultimate substances which compose 
the earth are divisible into metallic, non-metallic earths, 
and gases, numbering all together about sixty ; of these 
nearly fifty are considered metallic, eight are conjectured 
to be non-metallic earths, and four gaseous. Before the 
time of Sir Humphry Davy, many of the substances 
which are now known to be metals were considered as 
non-metallic earths ; but he proved experimentally that 
they are metals combined with oxygen. It has been 
demonstrated that a large proportion of the solid crust 
of the earth is oxygen combined with substances most 
of which have a metallic basis. This oxygen must have 
been originally derived from the atmosphere, for in the 
beginning there could have been none any where else. 
There is no avoiding the conclusion that the atmosphere 
has been continually yielding its contents to the solid 
earth. 

The original crust of the earth must have been com- 
posed of those metals and earths which have the least 
specific gravity, combined with oxygen. The principal 
of these are calcium, potassium, silicium, or silicon, sodi- 
um, aluminum, and magnesium. These substances must 



154 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

at one time have floated upon the liquid surface of the 
earth, and were thus exposed to form combinations with 
^oxygen, sulphur, phosphorus, carbon, iodine, and other 
volatile substances. Upon the crus't thus formed the prim- 
itive ocean fell from the atmosphere. Then commenced 
that series of geological operations which produced the 
present condition of the earth, the sea, and the air — 
operations which are still progressing in the same direc- 
tion, under the influence of the same laws, though the 
combinations and circumstances are continually becom- 
ing more and more complicated. The metallic earth 
and the liquid ocean and atmosphere have been unceas- 
ingly acting and reacting upon each other ; but in this 
contest the atmosphere has been continually losing sub- 
stance. The earth had originally nothing to gave ta 
the atmosphere but metals, and these the atmosphere 
could not retain ; but the atmosphere possessed an 
immense quantity of vaporous and gaseous substance^ 
which the gradually increasing coldness forced it to 
impart to the earth. 

The oxides of metals, which formed upon the surface 
of the new earth, being non-conductors of heat, con- 
fined most of it within the sphere oT the earth itself, 
and thus enabled the vapors of water to condense and 
fall upon the oxidated surface, and form an unbounded 
and shoreless ocean. The heavier metals of course 
sunk below the first formed crust, though some of them 
were thrown up by eruptions afterwards. On the other 
hand, the lighter metals united with the oxygen to form 
the top of the crust, and were, therefore, first exposed 
to the attrition of the waters. This being the case, it 



RELATION OP THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE GLOBE. 155 

would naturally follow, that the first stratified deposits 
would be composed of ingredients worn from the prim- 
itive crust, and constituted of the oxides of the lightest 
metals. 

In accordance with this reasoning, we actually find 
potassium, sodium, aluminum, calcium, and silicium, the 
lightest known metals and metalloids, performing the 
principal part in forming the first stratified' rocks that 
were deposited from the primitive ocean. Sodium, the 
lightest known metal, united with oxygen and chlorine to 
form common salt, wliich was dissolved in the ocean 
waters. Potassium, the next lightest of the metals, 
united with oxygen to form potash, which is an essential 
constituent of granite — and granite is the material of 
which the original crust was mostly formed. Silicium, or 
silicon, a metalloid which belongs to the lightest class, 
is the principal constituent of mica and quartz. Alumi- 
num, one of the same class of light metals, is the main 
ingredient of clay. Calcium, another very light metal, 
constitutes the essential part of lime. 

It has been a question how the rocks originated 
which are composed of the carbonate of lime. I have 
suggested already, in another place, that cold water 
will hold more lime in solution than warm will. I be- 
lieve, however, that water will not hold tlie carbonate 
of lime in solution, — except, perhaps, in small quanti- 
ties, when the water contains an excess of carbonic 
acid. Another explanation of the phenomenon has oc- 
curred to me, which is, that, when the ancient waters 
held a large quantity of lime in solution, and the atmos- 
phere was also heavily charged with carbonic acid, the 



156 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

carbonic acid of the atmosphere would be absorbed by 
the water aiid unite with the lime, forming the insoluble 
carbonate of lime, which would of course be precipi- 
tated and constitute the limestones. 

From this brief statement it appears that granite was 
formed by the cooling of melted lava ; gneiss, sandstones, 
and clay, by the wearing away and rearranging of gran- 
ite by water ; and limestones and some others were de- 
posited from solution in water. 

Iron unites with oxygen to form an oxide whicli gives 
its peculiar color to all the rocks through which it is 
diffused ; but we do not find this red color characterizing 
the earliest deposits from the ocean. Iron was, un- 
doubtedly, thrown up as a consequence of the pressure 
produced by the primary stratified rocks. The forma- 
tion called the old red sandstone was produced by the 
attrition of the sediment and the water upon the. iron 
which had been thrown up from below the crust after 
the deposition of the primary strata of gneiss and the 
lower slates. 

If the volcanic forces merely threw up the primitive 
crust of the earth and exposed it again and again to 
the action of the atmosphere and the water, there would 
be a limit to the absorbing power of the crust, and we 
might be allowed to indulge a hope that a mathematical 
calculation would demonstrate the impossibility of the 
whole ocean and atmosphere being ultimately absorbed ; 
but when we know that the vast stores of metal below 
the crust are thirsting to drink up our ocean and atmos- 
phere, digest all the gases, and assimilate them to earth, 
we must abandon such a hope, and look at the actual 



RELATION OF THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE GLOBE. 157 

facts. " One half at least of the ponderable matter near 
the earth's surface is oxygen," which was once in the at- 
mosphere ; the granite and slate rocks are saturated 
with oxygen, and so is the iron which succeeded the 
earlier slates ; the limestones, also, are composed prin- 
cipally of calcium, magnesium, carbon, and oxygen. 
When vegetation commenced on the earth, and the coal 
was formed, it drank millions of millions of tons of vapor, 
carbon, and oxygen from the atmosphere, and deposited 
it in the form of coal beds. Above this again rose new 
red sandstone, and chalk, and a great variety of minor 
rocks ; but all robbed the atmosphere and the water to 
obtain ingredients with which to constitute themselves. 
At the present time, the atmosphere weighs nearly 
fifteen pounds to the square inch ; but it must once have 
been man}^ times heavier, and it must now be continually 
growing lighter ; for volcanoes are incessantly pouring 
forth lavas, and forcing up metals, which have a strong 
affinity for oxygen ; vegetables are continually absorb- 
ing vast quantities of carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen ; 
and animals, without conceivable number, are appropri- 
ating oxygen to produce their motions and sustain life. 
The gradually decreasing size of the products of vege- 
tation in the known parts of the earth, since the car- 
boniferous period, is evidence that its capabilities are 
not what they once were, and philosophy shows us no 
limit to this decrease until the present condition of the 
moon shall be reached by the earth, and ocean, air, and 
organic life shall all be compounded with the metals. 
The length of time that must transpire before these ex- 
treme results are produced will be vast, no doubt ; but, 
14 



158 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

logically or geologically, that makes no final difi"erence. 
If it appears that the earth is continually absorbing 
more of the atmosphere than it restores, the time will 
come when there will be none left, and the analogy of 
the earth to the moon will be complete. If by any 
means all the metallic contents of the interior of the 
earth could be brought, in a subdivided state, into con- 
tact with the atmosphere and the ocean for only a single 
moment, the latter would both be entirely absorbed and 
amalgamated with the earth. 

It is v/orthy of especial remark that the absence of 
red oxides from the very earliest deposits, and their 
abundance afterwards, not only proves that iron and 
the heavier metals had not yet been thrown to the sur- 
face in an}^ great quantities, and that the lighter metals 
preceded them in composing the earth's crust, but it 
proves also that there could not have been any powerful 
volcanoes before the primary .strata were deposited 
from the ocean ; for, if there had been, iron would have 
been thrown up by them, and would have tinged the 
granite and gneiss, as it afterwards did the sandstone 
formations, below and above the coal measures. Before 
there were any mountains there could not have been 
much iron on the earth's surface, and the composition of 
the earliest rocks shows, in fact, that there w^as but little ; 
but after the first convulsions and eruptions, we find iron 
and other metals increasing in quantity continually. 

If circumstances were now to put the earth into a 
place where its whole surface would be melted, gravita- 
tion would at once restore all the substances on its sur- 
face to their original positions, as they were before the 



RELATION OP THE CONSTITUENTS OF THE GLOBE. 159 

first strata were formed. The surface of the melted 
earth would be covered with the elements of the early 
rocks ; granite, gneiss, and sandstone would be formed 
upon the surface again, but iron, tin, lead, copper, and 
other heavy metals would be below the surface, and 
would remain there until pressure from above produced 
an eruption, which would force them up in veins. If, 
before such an eruption, the new granite were worn and 
brojien up by the water, it would cause a deposit of 
strata composed only of the same chemical elements as 
those which constituted the granite, combined, perhaps, 
with some other substances, absorbed from the water ; 
but there would be no iron. Now, let an eruption en- 
sue, and on the top of that primitive stratum there 
would be poured a mass of iron, the most abundant of 
the heavy metals, and one of the lightest of those which 
are beneath the granite crust, being, at the same time, 
remarkable for the deep color of its oxides. During 
the formation of the strata that followed the eruption 
of the iron, the oxide would be mingling its red and 
yellow dyes with the sand and marl which constituted 
the layers of strata. The iron below the crust is like the 
blood beneath the skin ; it never appears in large quan- 
tities, except in consequence of a wound of considerable 
depth. 

It follows, from the foregoing, that metals should be 
most abundantly emitted in those places where disloca- 
tions of the earth's crust have been produced the most 
suddenly and the most deeply, and I believe that the ap- 
pearances presented by mining regions agree with this 
idea. It must necessarily happen that, in some cases an 



160 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

immense load of detritus will collect upon a portion of 
the crust of the earth before it yields in any degree to 
its weight ; but when it does give way, it produces a 
sudden downward movement on one side of the fissure, 
which is instantly followed by a corresponding reaction 
upward of the metallic fluid from below to the other side. 
This being so, it must be easy to determine on which 
side of the fissure the subsidence took place, and in what 
direction the metals may be found. A gradual pressure 
would be likely to crowd up only the melted lava which 
floats upon the surface ; but a sudden, deep, and power- 
ful fall of the ocean's bed might, by its reaction, throw 
up the heavier metals, which are below the lava. 

In mines it is a general fact that the metallic veins run 
at right angles to the mountain range, or main axis of 
elevation ; the reason of this has always been a mystery. 
Is not the explanation to be found in the fact that the 
lava and its metallic accompaniments are forced and 
powerfully pressed between the opposite sides of the 
mountain, and thus driven, in a melted state, into the 
crevices that run at right angles to the mountain ? * 

* As, after the deposit of the slates, violent dislocations happened and 
were succeeded by the old red conglomerate, so, after the deposit of the 
coal, similar and equally extensive interruptions of the planes and courses 
of strata were followed by the analogous deposit of lower red (?ie2^ rea) 
sandstone. — Philips. 



COMPARATIVE GEONOMY. 161 



SECTION IX. 

COMPARATIVE GEONOMY. ANALOGY OF THE EARTH TO 
MARS, VENUS, AND THE MOON. 

In order more perfectly to conceive of the operation 
of geonomic principles, let us suppose that one of the 
planets, otherwise like this, had no equinoctial precession, 
nor change of seasons, the terrestrial equator, the ther- 
mal equator, and the ecliptic being identical. In such 
a planet, the northern and southern currents, and conse- 
quently the continents, would be nearly symmetrical. 
The forms of the continents and the directions of the 
ocean currents, the mountains, and the rivers, could all 
be predicted before the creation of such a world. Its 
condition at any given time being known, its future 
changes and its progress could be calculated with cer- 
tainty. The positions of its latest volcanoes and the 
direction of its earthquakes being ascertained, it could 
be determined when and where the outbreak of a new 
volcano might be expected. Even in regard to our own 
planet, singular and presumptuous as it may seem, I am 
fully convinced that we now have the clew to the chain 
of facts and reasonings by which we shall be able to 
point with phifef^phical confidence to the course of 
future earthquakes and volcanoes, though with much less 
certainty than we could in the case we are supposing. 
In our hypothetical planet, the currents would tend to 
produce a series of continents which would be of an 
U* 



162 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

oval or elliptical form, with their long diameters to the 
north-east and south-west on the north side of the planet, 
and to the north-west and south-east on tbe south side. 
Tlie mountains, rivers, slopes, the volcanoes, earthquakes, 
and even the clouds and the weather, would be nearly 
alike in each one of these continents ; and all terres- 
trial phenomena wouM present one continuous round of 
tedious repetitions. 

Let us now imagine another planet, so situated, if 
possible, that its ecliptic is constantly in the plane of 
the tropic of Cancer, or several degrees north of it. Of 
course we should have continual summer in the north and 
winter in the south ; the currents would alternately flow 
from the north pole to about the thirtieth degree of south 
latitude and back again ; the continents would all be 
formed in the northern hemisphere ; for^here would be 
no currents to form any in the south ; nor would there 
be a mountain, a volcano, nor an earthquake in that for- 
saken hemisphere south of Capricorn. If any did exist, 
they w^ould be placed, like Hecla and Erebus, as if to 
mark the proper bounds of the ocean currents in that 
direction. 

Again, let us suppose, what is probably true of Yenus, 
that the axis of the earth, at its creation, was inclined 
seventy-five degrees, so that the tropical lines would be 
much farther apart, and very near the poles ; of course, 
in that case, the currents from the north would extend 
farther over into the southern hemisphere than they do 
now ; and the southern currents would reciprocate, by 
alternately extending almost to the north pole, and then, 
in the southern winter, being confined to the polar regions 



GOMPABATIVE GEONOMY. 1^ 

of the southern hemisphere. The consequence would be, 
that the mountains would be much higher in the tropics 
than they are now. The poles would each, alternately, 
at lone season, be deeply covered with ice and snow, and 
broken up by frost, and then, at another season, over- 
whelmed with a flood of warm water and solar heat. 
The regions of the equator would be loaded with detri- 
tus from each pole in turn, and mountain ranges would 
consequently assume forms and directions, and rise to 
heights, now unknown on this earth. 

Illustrations like these lead us to regard our oceans, 
mountains, and shore lines with new interest, as me- 
morials of changes produced by regular and universal 
laws. The inequalities which form such an important 
feature in the face of mother earth may hereafter be 
considered, without fancy, as so many wrinkles which 
Time is continually deepening and extending to mark 
his inexorable progress towards the ultimate decay of 
terrestrial nature.* 

If the mountains and valleys of the earth are formed 
by the movements of the liquids upon its surface, the 
same must be true of the moon and those planets the 
mountains of which can be seen by the telescope. As 
far as I have been able to examine the subject, the tel- 



* " Amid these singular varieties one fact or feature seems so uniform, or, 
at least, so general, that the idea of its being a catholic or cosraical feature 
can hardlj' be evaded ; I mean the presence of an upheaving cause, that 
grand energy which has elevated our ranges of mountains. In the moon, 
especially in Mercury, Mars, and Venus, elevations of imposing magnitude 
unquestionably exist. 

" Assuredly enough is already known to demand the extension of our views 
regarding this wide-spread energy." — Nichols, On the Solar Sy stent. 



164 OUTLINES OF GEONOMY. 

escope appears to confirm the doctrines here advocated. 
One view of Mars, as depicted by Sir John Her'scheL 
exhibits the outline of a continent which bears a strik- 
ing resemblance to the western outline of Africa tnd 
Europe ; that is to say, the land is pointed westward 
in the tropics, and recedes eastwardly towards both 
poles. This is the more strikingly analogous, from the 
fact that the inclination of the axis of Mars is nearly 
the same as that of the earth, being about twenty-eight 
degrees, that of the earth being twenty-three and a 
half degrees. 

The mountains and valleys of the moon appear to be 
formed on an entirely- different plan from these of the 
earth. They are numerous, short, circular, rugged, and 
precipitous. If I am correct in the reasoning by which 
I have concluded that the waters and atmosphere of the 
moon have been gradually absorbed by its metallic sub- 
stances, and that the earth is undergoing the same 
process, the hypothesis agrees with the telescopic ap- 
pearances of the moon's surface. Suppose that the 
earth had not possessed more than one eighth as much 
water and atmosphere as originally it did. Instead of 
having a few e:^tensive oceans, bounded by long ranges 
of mountains, as we now have, we should have had a 
large number of separated lakes, like the Caspian, the 
Aral, and the Superior. These would have received all 
the detritus ; and, while the crust of the earth was 
young and yielding, the bottoms of the lakes would 
have subsided, and carried down with them the rem- 
nants of the water and the atmosphere ; and when they 
finally all dried up, they would have presented an ap- 



COMPARATIVE GEONOMY. 165 

pearance not very different from that now exliibited by 
the valleys and mountains of the moon. Even the 
islands in the lakes would be left standing in their 
midst, as they appear now to stand in the deep circular 
valleys of the moon. From this it appears that the ab- 
sence of a perfect atmosphere and ocean from the moon, 
while, at the same time, it possesses mountains, instead 
of being an evidence of the insufficiency of the geonom- 
ic theory, is but an additional argument in its favor. 

It should be considered as another reason for the 
peculiarities of the moon's surface, especially the short- 
ness of her mountain ranges, that the inclination of her 
axis is but about five degrees, and that she is a whole 
month revolving upon her axis ; the consequence is, 
that her poles must be intensely cold at all times ; and 
her tropics alternately hot one month and cold the 
next. Besides, the face of the moon, which is towards 
us, never turns away, since she is just as long in revolv- 
ing upon her axis as she is in going around the earth. 
The tidal influence of the earth upon the moon is com- 
puted to be more than twenty times greater than that 
of the moon upon the earth ; and this must have a 
peculiar effect upon that surface which is turned to- 
wards the earth. It is a complicated question what 
must have been the effect of the earth's attraction upon 
the waters of the moon when they did exist and were 
engaged in producing the mountains which remain to 
attest the former existence and power of those lunar 
oceans which have now ceased to circulate. 

On the whole, the appearances af the moon's valleys 
and mountains are not more peculiar, abnormal, and at 



166 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

variance with those of the earth, than are the circum- 
stances and conditions in which she is known to be 
placed. Besides these known conditions, it is reason- 
able to imagine that there are others which we cannot 
know, and may only conjecture. It is possible, for in- 
stance, that the surface of the moon may be covered, in 
part, by one or more fluids, entirely different from 
water, and more analogous to mercury, which could 
produce all the effects of an ocean, so far as the eleva- 
tion of volcanic mountains is concerned, without ne- 
cessarily being accompanied by any atmosphere like 
ours ; but, while such conjectures may be indulged in 
as mere philosophical amusements, we have no 'proper 
mode of reasoning upon the subject except that afforded 
by terrestrial analogies. 

If I am not mistaken, the outlines of the forms seen 
on the moon's surface are such as to indicate that the 
forces which produced them must have moved more 
nearly north and south than otherwise ; for few of them 
have their long diameters east and west. This appears 
to be in accordance with the fact that the motion of 
the moon upon its axis, from west to east, is exceed- 
ingly slow, and but little calculated to communicate 
motions in that direction to the fluids on its surface ; 
but the great difference in temperature between the 
poles and the equator is such as to promote a circula- 
tion in a northern and southern direction. 



CONCLUSION. 167 



CONCLUSION 



That the general reader may not suppose that this 
treatise is a mere theoretical speculation or hypothesis, 
originating in the fancy of the author, instead of con- 
sisting of deductions drawn from newly-discovered 
facts, I subjoin a statement of some of the facts which 
are independent of all theory, and which are now for 
the first time announced to the public. 

1. It is a fact that all ocean currents, as far as we 
know, run in irregular ellipses, and that a natural law 
has always required them to do so. 

2. That all large ocean currents run on the western 
coasts when proceeding towards the equator, and on 
the eastern coasts when returning towards either of the 
poles. 

3. That the ocean currents run alternately towards 
the equator on the western sides of continents, and then 
from it on the eastern sides, as follows : towards the 
equator on the west of Europe and Africa, then from it 
on the east of the two Americas, then towards it on 
the west of the two Americas, and from it on the east 
of Asia and Australia, next towards it on the west of 
Australia, and from it on the east of Africa. 

4. That all the mountain/ ranges which run east and 
west, are found in parts of the earth where ocean cur- 
rents always run east and west, that is, near the tropics 
or near the arctic seas. 

5. That all the mountain ranges in any part of the 



168 OUTLINES OP GEONOMY. 

earth, that run north and south, are in situations — 
that is, generally in places between the tropics and the 
arctic — where the ocean currents, if they run (or ever 
did run) there, must pursue nearly a north and south 
direction. 

6. That the sizes, and directions, and forms of moun- 
tain curves and ranges in all parts of the world, are 
precisely what they would be if they were caused by 
the ocean currents that did once, or do now, run in the 
vicinity. 

7. That the western sides of mountains generally bear 
evidence that the ocean currents once ran from the pole 
against them, and the eastern sides show that they 
have been washed by currents from the tropics. 

8. That the abrupt slopes of mountains are towards 
the larger ocean. 

9. That the principal ranges of mountains are nearly 
parallel with the paths of the ocean currents. 

10. That instead of the ocean being shallower in 
those places where the most sediment is deposited, it is 
frequently deepest in those very places ; yet the bottom 
of the ocean is not in the least abraded by the currents. 

Besides the above newly-discovered facts, which go to 
sustain the geonomic theory, I believe that all other 
known facts accord with it. 



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